Publication of the World Christian Life Community

N 1/2 • 2016
 Borgo Santo Spirito, 4 – 00193 Rome-ITALY • Web site: www.cvx-clc.net E-mail: progressio@cvx-clc.net
English, French and Spanish Editions
Editor: Alwin D. Macalalad

Progressio is the official publication of the

Christian Life Community (CLC). It seeks to
Letter from the Editor
Alwin Macalalad 1
CLC, Living as a Global Citizen The throwaway Culture
build community, supplement formation, and
promote apostolic works. By publishing sto-
ries, reflections, events and opinions, it
endeavors to reinforce, challenge and deep- Tryphena Young-sun Koh Christian Ubilla
en the community’s understanding and living
of the CLC Charism, Ignatian Spirituality and the
gospel values

2 6
ABOUT OUR LOGO

We did not go too far to find inspiration for the

logo of the Christian Life Community (CLC).
Countless books have been written about the

Towards Bethlehem as a Family The Synod on the Family

Salvation history of CLC and its beginning in
year 1563. From that came the Marian
Congregations and its symbol (shown on the Charlotte and Gwénolé Berchon Nelson and Cory Villafania
top right), having the “P” over the “X” (for the
Greek Christus) and the inserted “M” illustrates
that the Congregations were put under the

10 15
patronage of Mary, the mother of Jesus.
The blue curved line illustrates a movement
forward to one World Community in 1967;
hence the globe. From this new beginning came
a new name: Communauté de Vie Chrétienne
(CVX) in French; Comunidad de Vida Cristiana
(CVX) in Spanish; Christian Life Community
(CLC) in English.
Love is our mission Report from PanAmazon
PHOTOS BACK COVER Hung & Kim-Anh Vu Lorena Perez
1. Fr. Adolfo Nicolás SJ with the WCLC
Secretariat Team

18 20
2. AMDG, a youth band in Hong Kong © 2016 by
AMDG Music (Hong Kong)

3. CLC members of Bolivia with Luke Rodrigues

SJ (WCLC Vice-Ecclesiastical Assistant
2010-2016)
4. CLC members of Switzerland
5. CLC Middle East Team
Starting Young Remembrance of Fred Leone
6. CLC Nigeria on the Nigeria Independence
Anna, Virginia, Sara, Vansi, José, Ignacio, M. Magdalena Palencia and Marie
Marie-Emmanuelle and Magdalena Schimelfening
Anniversary (October 1st)
The following persons collaborated to this
publication, Translators and Proof Readers:

24 32
Marie Bailloux, Arielle Campin, Dominique Cyr,
Marita De Lorenzi, Charlotte Dubuisson, David
Formosa, Jennifer Fox, Maria C. Galli-Terra,
Françoise Garcin, Maria Gomez Pinilla, Patricia
Kane, Alban Lapointe, Odile Molina, Sofia
Montañez Castro, Liliana Ojeda, Maria Magdalena
Palencia, Agnes Rausch, Clifford Schisler,
Madeleine Selves, Marie-Catherine Sergent, To share in the blessings Meet the ExCo
Céline Vielfaure, Veronica Villegas, Sarah Walker, Luke Rodrigues SJ Josephine Shamwana-Lungu
Elena Yeyati

Lay out: Nguyen Thi Thu Van

36 40
This publication may be copied and redistributed in
whole or in part, for non-commercial purposes,
with the condition that proper attribution is given.
For other uses, contact progressio@cvx-clc.net

Printed by: Tipografia Città Nuova

via Pieve Torina, 55, 00156 Roma
Excerpts from the GP
42 The Readers’ voice
44
 One Community, One Way of Life
T
Alwin D. Macalalad
his gem of the Church, called CLC, has
many facets. And you may read this
issue of Progressio as if you are gently
holding a many-sided jewel under a light.
You will see CLC as a Non-Government
Organization, participating in the UN DPI-
NGO Conference and, through CLC Korea
(article by Tryphena Koh), sharing the rich-
ness of the local mission with the rest of the
participant NGOs. In Latin America, you
will see a CLC that is deep in reflection and
engagement within the current sociopoliti-
cal reality, especially in the context of Pope
Francis' strong encouragement. Christian
Ubilla shares the course and the resulting
book publication with us in his article. And
so you will find a side of CLC that is en-
gaged collectively, and institutionally, in the
structures of the world.
Turning the gem a fraction more, you will
see that CLC is about family-- never losing
sight of the basic fabric that holds the
human community together. Hung and
Kim-Anh Vu express this well in their arti-
cle, "Love is our Mission". This is affirmed
by Cory and Nelson Villafania in their ex-
perience as auditors in the Synod on the
Family. They share their insights as partic-
ipants in the conversation upon which the
Pope's apostolic exhortation Amoris Laeti-
tia was based upon. As all this was happen-
ing, the Berchon Family-- husband, wife
and three children-- was undertaking a year-
long journey/pilgrimage relying on bikes,
on feet, and on the generosity of strangers,
in order to reach Bethlehem, and then get
back home.
If you look even more closely, you can see
the individual lives that our community is
made of. You can read it through the lens of
the persons who have shared their journey
in CLC: Josephine Shamwana-Lungu and
how she was drawn deeper and deeper into
CLC; Lorena Perez, as she shares the first
two months of her mission as a volunteer in
the Amazon; Fr. Luke Rodrigues SJ and his
reflection and message to the community, as
he ends his term as Vice-Ecclesiastical As-
sistant for World CLC; remembrances of
Fred Leone, who has lived as a Sodality
member, and formed part of the transition-
phase leadership that strengthened our
structures and involvements as a lay Ignat-
ian community. Then, you might be able to
get a glimpse of the seamless edges of our
life stories interweaving- the invitations, the
intensity and surprise of the missionary en-
counter, the trust and dedication of accom-
paniment, and the Life, fulfilled.
That final gleam you see of that CLC gem-
facet will be coming from the eyes of our
CLC youth, who, as you will read from their
World Youth Day testimonies, will carry forth
CLC into the next years with fire and vigor.
This is a glimpse of our life, our way of
being Church. It is brimming with journeys,
seen and unseen. Written or unheralded.
Lives shared in the intimacy of local com-
munities, or wielded and lived in the arena
of daily strife. In our Progressio I see a quiet
joy, and a living hope. A celebration of life.
May this issue you hold help you contem-
plate our communion-- the unspoken prayer
that holds all of us together.
1
 CLC, Living as a Global Citizen
Tryphena has been the
Executive Secretary of CLC
Korea for 5 years. She made her
permanent commitment in
2012. She is a member of
Executive Committee of CLC
Korea as well as a spiritual
guide.
Below: Opening Ceremony.
The 66th UN DPI/NGO Confe-
rence was held from 30 May to
1 June 2016 in Gyeongju pro-
vince, the first venue in
Asian/African continents.
© UNITED NATIONS 2016
I
CLC at the 66th UN DPI/NGO Conference 2016
first received a request to participate in
the 66th UN DPI/NGO conference on
behalf of the world community from
Ann Marie Brennan (a member of the World
ExCo and the UN working group) in April
2016. I was pleased with the unexpected in-
vitation and hoped to listen to the will of
God in it so that I would be able to carry out
what He wanted. In retrospect, I really feel
that participating in the conference was a
precious and grateful time for CLC Korea.
Our participation as NGO
From its beginning in 1986, CLC Korea has
been carrying out activities, keeping our
characteristic as an NGO in mind. One of
our first common apostolate was to help the
urban poor and we worked with other or-
ganizations in the field. We also cooperated
with other civic groups on political as well
as environmental issues. We carried out a
program to form catholic NGO activists. In
2002, we opened a center to protect human
rights of migrant workers and internation-
ally married women, whose influx to Korea
after the Asian financial crisis became a so-
cial issue in Korea. We also opened centers
for poor children and our social apostolate
seemed to take root. However, the meaning
of Korea CLC’s NGO character was still un-
Tryphena Young-sun Koh
clear and sometimes it seemed as if it were
just a cliché.
Then, the community discerned to focus
more on finding the will of God rather than
keeping what we had done so we evaluated
and reflected our experiences up to then. As
a result, we refocused on the target and
method for common apostolate and started
“CLC HOPE School” for poor juveniles.
Sharing the process with all members in the
national assembly in 2012, we communally
discerned to choose CLC HOPE School as
a way to live out our vision of cutting the
vicious cycle of poverty through education
and to reorient and materialize our charac-
teristic as an NGO. Again, in the national
assembly this year, we shared how to be vis-
ible in the world as an NGO and decided to
find specific ways.
The request from the world CLC came in
this context, so it was very meaningful for
me. It was made more so, because the theme
was “Education for Global Citizenship:
Achieving the Sustainable Development
Goals Together.” The 66th UN DPI/NGO
Conference was held from 30 May to 1 June
2016 in Gyeongju province, the first venue
in Asian/African continents. More than
4000 NGO delegates, representing around
1500 organizations from approximately 100
countries took part in the conference. It had
5 roundtable sessions and 46 workshops.
The previous DPI/NGO conference, held in
2014, suggested the Sustainable Develop-
ment Goals (SDGs) which would replace
the Millennium Development Goals
(MDGs) of the UN. In September 2015, 17
SDGs were adopted by the UN Member
States. The 2016 conference focused on
Sustainable Development Goal 4, “Ensure
inclusive and equitable quality education”
as a way to collaborate to achieve SDGs,
and shared various strategies, specialties,
and ways of civil society to use resources to
provide lifelong education opportunities for
all, which ensure inclusive, safe, and equi-
table quality education. Groups participat-
ing in the workshops presented various
activities to provide marginalized people
without any opportunity to get education
with more chances for quality education and
shared the fruits.
The final Gyeongju Action Plan says that
“Education is a human right, essential to
well-being and dignity, and is key to achiev-
ing Agenda 2030.” It also says that every-
one should get access to education in any
situation, so that they can learn basic knowl-
edge and technology to fully participate as
a member of society. Participants decided to
resolve inequality through education and
strengthen solidarity to contribute to educa-
tion for global citizenship.
CLC Korea co-sponsored a workshop for
Day 1 with the topic “See the Unseen: The
Inclusion of Marginalized Groups” where
we introduced CLC Hope School. Mr. KIM
Gyeong-hun, a CLC member working at the
CLC Hope School in Seoul, gave a presen-
tation to share the things necessary to edu-
cate poor juveniles and the wisdom we have
learned. It contained our reflections on op-
erating the children’s center for years.
Merely providing necessary care is not
enough for poor children and juveniles to
grow into an independent adult. It is impor-
tant to help them develop the capacity to sus-
tain themselves in order to cut the vicious
cycle of poverty. The presentation was more
meaningful in that it showed our discern-
ment to choose where to concentrate after
long communal evaluations and reflections.
Below counterclockwise:
Many of the workshops were organized by - UN NGO Conference.
universities, businesses and public institutes - Mr. KIM Gyeong-hun, a CLC
rather than NGOs, which was somewhat member working at the CLC
Hope School in Seoul, gaving a
disappointing. However, it was a time to presentation.
feel motivated and led by God to meet many - CLC Korea co-sponsored a wor-
groups and people of goodwill from across kshop for Day 1 with the topic
the world, working together to discuss many "See the Unseen: The Inclusion
impending global issues and reach an agree- of Marginalized Groups" .
ment to meet SDGs and find proper solu-
© UNITED NATIONS 2016
3

Young people participating in
the DPI-NGO Conference.
© UNITED NATIONS 2016
4
tions. The workshops also gave us a
chance to see the desperate and urgent re-
alities around the world. I became aware
of myself as a person who just focuses on
what is in front of me, hardly recognizing
the real problems in the world. Moreover,
they gave me a chance to see through the
whole global village. The young who ac-
tively participated, shared their ideas and
enjoyed together in the conference also
gave me inspiration and hope. It became
clear to me that though the fields we are
working on and targets we are working
with are limited, when we look at our ac-
tivities from a global perspective keeping
other organizations and people in mind,
we are actually taking care of the whole
global village together.
In addition, I could see CLC’s NGO char-
acter from a different perspective. From the
beginning, the Sodality influenced the
world through their apostolic activities
based on Ignatian Spirituality. It seemed to
me that when Pope Pius XII said of the So-
dality to be “among the most powerful spir-
itual forces” and should reform itself based
on its original spirituality - St. Ignatius’
Spiritual Exercises, he would also like to
point out the identity of CLC which appears
in our General Principles, “a community to
serve the Church and the whole humanity”.
Solidarity, Listening, and Being
the Voice for the Voiceless
CLC’s NGO character can be shown
through CLC’s apostolate. There are two
things I can learn from this experience.
First, the conference reconfirmed the impor-
tance of solidarity. Ms. Cristina Gallach,
UN Under-Secretary-General for Commu-
nications and Public Information asked
NGOs to work together to raise their voice
in the UN, which shows the importance of
solidarity. As I could see from this confer-
ence, NGOs still seemed weak in taking the
lead in creating networking initiatives. In
that sense, I can understand how precious
the gift our CLC communities receive from
God. As “a member of one body,” CLC has
a great potential to speak up about a com-
mon issues and easily create a functional
network. When each national community
cooperates to establish a more systematic
and realistic structure, our mission can be
more visible in the world. Also, businesses,
public organizations and universities are
also important partners for NGOs, given
their capacity and resources. We have a va-
riety of neighbors. One voice itself might be
weak, but together, the voice of truth will
lead the change of the world.
Secondly, I became aware of the fact that an ituality itself is the basis for CLC to be pres-
important role of NGOs is to represent the ent as an NGO in the world.
voices from the field. As the conference con-
firmed, NGOs have the clarity and awareness On St. Ignatius’ Day this year, we had a time
of the reality and the needs of the people on to share what we had learned from the con-
the ground. I realize it is vital to listen to the ference with the whole members of CLC
voices from the field more, and better. When Korea. Members shared that it became a
we pay attention to their heart and their needs chance to be aware of ourselves as global
sincerely, we can represent their reality better. citizens, understand our common mission
The more we know about the situation, the more deeply as a member of the world com-
more determined we become to work and to munity and give thanks for the grace of our
find how and what to do next. When we en- spirituality, which made us deeply moved.
countered difficulties in our apostolate, we
often said we didn’t know what to do next. I I’d like to extend my gratitude to the world
now think that it was because of our attitude community for this invitation and their sup-
of not listening attentively. porting CLC Korea and me so that we could Below: UN NGO Conference
which had 5 roundtables and
have this precious experience. I also give 46 workshops.
CLC is already being trained to listen to the my deepest thanks to our Lord for leading At the bottom: CLC Korea Dele-
voice of the place well. Ignatian spirituality us to deepen the meaning of living together gates.
helps us to keep listening, feel empathetic as CLC. © UNITED NATIONS 2016
and communicate. Jesus Christ, who will-
ingly became a human at the will of the Fa-
ther, listened to the voice of all people,
especially the poor and marginalized, and
had a deep conversation with them, becom-
ing one with them. In order for us to be able
to listen to the voice of the poor, understand
their language, and have a deep conversa-
tion, it is crucial that we need to learn “wis-
dom language” as Fr. Nicolas said. The
more deeply we are trained with Ignatian
spirituality, the better we can listen to and
understand the voice of the poor and their
situations. The more we open ourselves in
God, the farther we can walk toward the
frontiers of the world. I can see that our spir-

5
 The throwaway Culture
Chuco is Sandy´s
husband, with a Master
in Social Management.
Regional director of The
Fe y Alegría Association
of Ecuador (Jesuit work in
popular education and
social promotion). CLCer
since 1998.
Below: Members of the Final
Encounter of the Second
Generation of the Course
Political Dimension of Social
Commitment of CLC-Latin
America.
6
Christian Ubilla
Socio Political Reflections from the CLC in Latin America
I
«But, can a catholic do politics? He must!
But, can a catholic makea political commitment? He must!»
(Pope Francis, 30th April 2015)
n July 2015, during his pastoral visit to people can no longer put up with it any-
Bolivia, Pope Francis questioned the be- more…And the land, the Sister Mother Earth
lievers and non-believers: “We know that as it was named by Saint Francis of Assisi is
things are not going well worldwide: where not able to continue with all this.”
there are so many farmers without a piece of
land, so many families without a roof, so These are not new ideas of the Church; what
many workers without any rights, so many seems new (for the majority of us) is that
people hurt in their dignity. We acknowledge they come from a Pope, from the “hie-
that the things are not rarchy” and the “offi-
Then we shall say it
going well when there cers” of the Church,
are so many wars wit- without being scared: we that his words show us
hout any sense and the a leadership with
fratricidal violence gets need a change, a real which we find oursel-
hold of our neighbor-
hoods. We understand
change, a change of ves identified and they
show us a road towards
that things are not structures. utopias that seemed to
going well when the be dying. This, in a
soil, the water, the air and all the living moment in which politics has been stripped
beings on earth are under a permanent of its character of action which could pro-
threat. Then we shall say it without being duce a change towards something better…
scared: we need a change, a real change, a a time in which the hope of a change in the
change of structures. This system can no lon- political nature has vanished. (José Laguna.
ger be held, the farmers cannot stand it any- Pisar la Luna. Cuaderno Cristianisme i Jus-
more, nor the workers, the communities, the ticia 195).
The political commitment has to do with the
modification of the power structures that
prevent people from living in a human man-
ner. If we understand political commitment
in this way, then there is a great need to ge-
nerate commitments, whether from a politi-
cal party, in social move-ments, in
organizations of the civil society or in the
tasks of the civil servants.
In this new ecclesiastical climate, more than
40 CLCers started between May 2014 and
December 2015 a new training process1 and
reflection about the socio political reality of
Latin America, a virtual course that finished
with a face to face meeting in Montevideo,
Uruguay2. Through this course, the CLC of
Latin America gets involved in going deeper
into the causes of unjustice to be able to
look for structural solutions.
witnesses are needed (General Principles of
the CLC No. 12.b) to build, with so many
others, that “other possible world”.
With great happiness we share our new
book of CLC Latin America4, published in
the year 2016, with the social political re-
flections of the participants of the second
generation of our course. The essays publis-
hed in this book show the completion of this
training process, an effort which became
possible, thanks to the leadership of David
Martinez and the support of Miguel Collado

David Martínez3, organizer of the Second

Generation of the Political Dimension
Course of Social Commitment of the CLA
in Latin America justified this process as fo-
llows: “We simply have to notice the so com-
plicated dynamics in which the countries
have fallen, some have shifted in the politi-
cal regime, some others have lived the tran-
sition of a political line to another one, the
poverty continues to being an essential cha-
llenge, the institutions of the political tradi-
tional life such as the political parties are
in disrepute, the corruption in the countries
continues to be a very important problem,
the inequality, the participation of multina-
tional groups in the inner life of the coun-
tries…simply a superficial reading of the
reality confirms the need for us to create
ourselves intellectually to be able to unders-
tand in a much better way the difficulties of
a Country and in that measure participate
in a much more accurate manner”.

Amidst the throw away culture, the globali-

zation of indifference, the technocratic pa-
radigm, the empire of money and the
deification of economic progress, more
competent workers and more convincing
From the top to the bottom:
1
Between the years 2012 and 2013 the first Course of Political Dimension and Social Commitment of - The Mexican team: Gerardo
Gómez, Giovanna De La Mora y
the CLA Latin America was carried out.
Mario Patiño.
2
From December 11 to the 14th of 2015. - Felipe Alvarez (Chile).
3
Mexican CLCer, Doctor in Social-Scientific Studies, Director of Investigations and Post Graduate of
the Latin American University of Leon-Mexico.
4
Spanish version downloadable at: http://dspace.leon.uia.mx:8080/xmlui/handle/123456789/99780

7

Below, from left to right:
- David Martinez.
- Olga (Argentina) Leandra
(Brasil) and Guadalupe (Mexico)
- New coordinating team: Stella
Maris (Argentina) Joao Pinto
(Brazil), Christian Ubilla (Ecua-
dor, coordinator), Lupe Fernán-
dez (Mexico), Alfredo Pavez
(Chile) y Manuel Martínez (Uru-
guay).
8
(Chile), Mauricio Lopez (Mexico –Ecua-
dor), Esteban Nina (Bolivia-Colombia),
Guadalupe Fernandez (Mexico), Joao Paulo
Pinto (Brazil), Stella Maris Margetic (Ar-
gentina), who formed the coordination
team. The course development was online
with bimonthly conferences and tutorials as
part of the training process and reflection of
each participant. The Latin American Uni-
5
Universidad de la Compañía de Jesús in Mexico.
6
Title of a radio series which does a Latin American reading of the Historic Jesus of Nazareth.
Because being a Christian
is being a follower of
“someone named Jesus”
who gets involved with
history and gets us involved
to dedicate our life to
announce and build the
Kingdom of Justice and
Fraternity
versity with branch in Leon , once again
5
contributed with its academic counseling to
assure the quality of the course and award a
certification. In July 2016 we started the
Third Generation of the Course with 53 par-
ticipants from twelve countries.
The final works of the participants show the
diversity of experiences and theoretical
orientations in which the layperson lives.
However, you will be able to find many
points in common: at the end of the process
we felt called to rescue the sense, the mea-
ning and the value of the political practice.
We also recognize ourselves called to redis-
cover that politics is an essential part of our
Christian vocation, because being a Chris-
tian is being a follower of “someone named
Jesus”6 who gets involved with history and
gets us involved to dedicate our life to an-
nounce and build the Kingdom of Justice
and Fraternity. We feel called to defend the
value of the group actions, from the Nation,
from below to transform the structures…We
believe in a practical prophetic policy and
with parrehesia (fearlessly, with courage)
which is not neutral, which does not sacri-
fice justice in the name of a (false) peace;
we believe in a politics which takes sides for
the last: the most poor, the deprived and the
excluded, including our Pachamama7 , for
everyone to be able to live with dignity as
the children of God.
In the month of April of 2015 the Pope
7
Term in Quechuan, indigenous Latin American language, which is translated as Mother Earth.
Francis encouraged us the lay Ignatian peo-
ple: “As a Catholic, do I watch from the bal-
cony? You can't watch from the balcony!
Get involved! Give it your best. If the Lord
calls you to this vocation, get to it, engage
in politics. It will make you suffer, it may be
an occasion for sin, but the Lord is with you.
Ask forgiveness and go forward. Let's not let
this throwaway culture throw us all away!
It throws away creation too, because crea-
tion is being destroyed more and more every
day. Do not forget what Blessed Paul VI
said: politics is one of the highest forms of
charity.”
Original in Spanish
Translated by Jennifer Fox
9
 Towards Bethlehem as a Family
Above: the BERCHON family:
Gwénolé, Yann, Charlotte,
Solenn and Xavier.
Below: the major milestones in
the Berchon family journey.
10
Charlotte and Gwénolé Berchon
Introduction:
We are a French family: parents, Gwénolé
and Charlotte, CLC members for 7 years,
and our three children: Xavier, 12 years
old, Yann, 10 years and Solenn, 7 years. We
left for a sabbatical year from the end of
June 2015 to the end of June 2016 to travel
to Bethlehem and back. We covered 4500
kms by bike the length of the Euro-bicycle
trail n. 6, which links the Atlantic Ocean,
through Nantes and continues right to the
1
Via Ignatia, a 2nd century Roman road.
Black Sea. From there we continued on
foot and by public buses. After the Eurocy-
cle n. 6, we reached Istanbul by bus, and
then we followed the footsteps of St Paul.
At the beginning of December we went by
plane to Israel. There, we walked in the de-
sert following Abraham and Moses, then
headed for Bethlehem to spend Christmas
there. After Bethlehem we followed the fo-
otsteps of Jesus through Galilee to Jerusa-
lem. We returned through Greece through
the via Ignatia1 from Thessalonika and El-
basan, then Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia
Herzegovina to Medjugorje, Slovenia and
finally to Venice, Italy, where we ended our
journey. We then returned to France by the
train from Venice.
Experiencing growth in the
family
We spent a year together, all five of us, al-
most 24 hours every day. In these circum-
stances, friction between adults, between
children, and parents/children is inevitable.
So we worked at patience and forgiveness,
and tried to let go some of our pride when
things did not go according to our plans.
The encounters that we experienced very
often did not allow us to live in isolation,
and helped us to keep our irritations and
annoyances in proportion.
After a year with the family, what particu-
larly came to the surface was a better under-
standing between parents and children. Now
each one of us is able to imitate to perfection
the odd habits and defects of the others! We
parents know the talents and abilities of our
children better, thanks to the conversations
we had while walking, and also because we
were their teachers for the year.
We have many memories in common, like
a sort of storehouse that we can dip into as
the foundation of our family story.
Our experience of meeting
different CLC groups from
different countries
We met CLC members in 7 places: in Ne-
vers in France, in Passau in Germany, in
Linz and Vienna in Austria, in Budapest in
Hungary, in Rijeka in Croatia, and in Trieste
in Italy. With each group, we felt welcomed
as if by family. We shared moments of kin-
ship and joy – meals, swimming, visits,
walks, prayer, Mass, Taizé chants, music.
We listened to our hosts talk of their coun-
try, their history, at times tragic, in Hungary
or Croatia. We talked about life in CLC in
each country, of the flow of a CLC meeting,
of the practice of the Spiritual Exercises.
We noticed that the communities had fewer
The most touching parts of
our trip
We were in awe, of course, of the country-
side spread out before us. We had the time
to contemplate Creation: the Danube, the
mountains and lakes in Turkey and the Bal-
kans, the Negev desert, the lake of Tiberias,
the Adriatic Sea. We were also very intere-
sted in the cultures and the histories of the
countries we traversed.
The great memories of our pilgrimage were
about the precious encounters with others - Below:
- The cave of the nativity is mar-
faces of God on our road. ked by a star with 14 branches.
- Street in Bethlehem by night.
We were touched by Father Athenasius in - The icons in the chapel of the
Hungary, a Catholic priest, who spontane- Center Mary of Nazareth.

guides than in France. In the countries that

we went to it was essentially the Jesuits
who fulfilled this role several times a year.

At Rijeka, we were present at the end of a

Mass with about twenty individuals who
were completing a cycle of spiritual exer-
cises in daily life. We explained to them
how we had discerned as a family and with
our community to make our decision either
to go away for a year or stay in Nantes.
We found as a point in common with our
companions: a simple life, at the service of
pilgrims, of suffering individuals, of refu-
gees, of psychiatric patients, of young peo-
ple and of the community.

11

Below from left to right:
- The remains of the Byzantine
church with the cave of the
house of Mary, site of the An-
nunciation.
- The pools of Solomon - reser-
voirs built by King Solomon
then refurbished by Herod the
Great to supply Herodium and
Jerusalem via an aqueduct.
- Father Yacoub in full regalia.
12
ously offered us hospitality. Father Athena- guide around Jericho for a whole day. He
sius suffered with his back, but his face ra- was filled with inner peace in spite of two
diated kindness. Our boys played music for administrative detentions without cause by
him; he offered us an ice cream and took the Israelis when he was an adolescent. The
the time to talk to us. In Rumania, Lucian, third, Abdelfattah, a Muslim, is the director
an Orthodox priest, married, and father of of an association of education and resi-
two young boys, had a kindly expression. stance through the arts in the refugee camp
We saw that he was available to the young of Aida, Alrowwad2. He spoke to us about
and not so young in his village. When he truth, peace and justice, and he lived by nur-
saw that one of our tents was soaked by the turing interior peace and non-violence.
rain, he let us sleep in the church, then in-
vited us to the prayer for the dead the next Albania was another place rich in encoun-
morning. ters, particularly with a family that had
practically nothing to live on, with whom
At Bethlehem, where we spent two weeks we stayed for almost 24 hours. We cooked,
at Christmas, we met three great witnesses. played and lived together. They are Mu-
The first were Greek Orthodox slim, and our discussions were translated
Catholics/Christians, notably Father Ya- by their adolescent nephew, an evangelical
coub, his children and grandchildren. He Protestant who reads the Bible, prays every
remains in Palestine in spite of the difficul- day and wants to become a missionary.
ties of daily life. He helped us to discover
the Byzantine Rite, marked at one and the The witnesses to faith of the Croatians in
same time by pomp and simplicity. Bosnia equally moved us. Lay or Franci-
scan, their faith is alive, unburdened by the
The second witness, Nicolas Youssama, a materialism and individualism of Western
young Greek Orthodox Christian, was our Europe.
2
Alrowwad (Pioneers for Life) for Culture and arTs (ACTs) was established in Aida refugee camp-Be-
thlehem in 1998 and registered as a not-for-profit organization in August of 2003, …by the Ministry of
Interior of the Palestinian National Authority… in the Ministry of Culture. Alrowwad, initiator of “Be-
autiful Resistance,” is an independent, dynamic, community-based not-for-profit organization which
strives to empower children and women by targeting behavior, knowledge, concepts and practices
through creative and non-violent means.
The graces received, reflec-
tions and achievements of
our journey3
In the course of this journey we have been
amazed by the signs of God in the unex-
pected, as with this van full of equipment
which had stopped in the middle of no-
where in Rumania while we had a pun-
cture, or again when Gwénolé broke a
tooth while we were staying in the apar-
tment of a young dentist in Macedonia.

We were overwhelmed by the welcome of

the poorest, who did not hesitate to offer us
everything that they had, particularly in
Serbia, Rumania, Turkey, Palestine, Greece
and Albania. This led us to question our
own generosity. Our children were perhaps
a factor in making this easier, but we expe-
rienced kindness and trust much more than
ill will and suspicion.
We were struck by the importance of the
protection of Creation and the link with the
living conditions of humankind, as Pope
Francis explains in Laudato si. For exam-
ple, we saw piles of rubbish around the
most neglected villages or where education
was lacking.
Plunged into the reality of the “refugee cri-
sis”, we imagined what these families must
be feeling, who are fleeing from war, war
in search of a welcoming country in Eu-
rope. In fact, we were inspected several
times by the police, often after denuncia-
tion, at the Hungarian, Greek, Macedonian
and Croatian frontiers.
habitants, discover their culture, their pre- Above: together with Nicolas
occupations, and allow us to be challenged Osama, our guide at Jericho.
by great and small events. Below: departure from Venice
towards France.
Now back home, we would love to return
to our former life but not at all as it was.
We have noticed that others confide in us
more easily; we would love to continue to
take the time for encounters. We have also
decided to open our door to travellers in the
network Warmshower (a free worldwide
hospitality exchange for touring cyclists).
As for our children, we sense that they
have more confidence in themselves, and
know better their likes and their wishes. We
hope that this exceptional year will conti-
nue to help them grow.
Original in French
Translated by Patricia Kane

Our prayer was enriched all along the way

by the different Christian traditions and
other religions. We remember especially
the Byzantine and Orthodox icons and fre-
scoes that recount the Gospel. We also re-
member the Sabbath dinner with a Jewish
family in Jerusalem. The distribution of
bread and wine by the father of the family,
as Jesus did with his disciples, has made us
see the Eucharist in a very real way.

Finally, our greatest grace was to have

time. A whole year to contemplate Crea-
tion, (including all the little or big beasts
that fascinated our children), meet the in-

3
You may follow the berchon Family's journey in their blog: http://enfamilleversbethleem.blogspot.it/
(in French).

13
 Glimpses
World Executive Council Meeting | Rome, 2016
From top to bottom, Left to
Right:

The ExCo visits the World

Secretariat.

A night of gratitude: Celebrating

the World ExCo’s last annual
meeting with Fr. Luke SJ.

Fr. Herminio Rico SJ presides in

one of the daily masses.

Rojean, Denis, Chris and Ann

Marie look over the list of
questions facing the world
community today.

Edel leads one of the meeting

sessions-- happiness!

Chris Hogan and Ann Marie

Brennan share a light moment
with Fr. Adolfo Nicolas SJ, World
EA.

Rojean, leads a review of the

apostolic frontiers survey.

An ExCo contingent visits St

Peter’s square hoping to attend
the Easter Vigil.

A visit to the Pontifical Council

for the Laity.

14
 The Synod on the Family
Nelson and Cory Villafania

An Experience of a Listening, Caring, Praying Church

“Only in the light of the

madness and great love of
Jesus will we understand the
madness and gratuitous love
between man and woman.”
This was one of the most beautiful state-
ments we ever heard (as translated from Ita-
lian to English) in the XIV Ordinary
General Assemby of the Synod of Bishops
on “The Vocation and Mission of the Family
in the Church and the Contemporary
World”, held on October 4-25, 2015 at the
Pope Paul VI Center, Vatican City. As audi-
tors representing the Philippines in the
Synod, we listened to all the plenary discus-
sions, featuring interventions by each of the
Synod Fathers on the three parts of the “In-
strumentum Laboris “. This was the wor-
lenges that faced us as spouses/parents and
king document containing the collated Nelson and Cory Villafania
professionals/Church workers involved in (Philippines) are a couple
results of the survey on the challenges and
the family ministry. They listened to our selected to be auditors to
concerns of families all over the world made
various experiences in raising our children, the Synod of Bishops on the
by the Extraordinary Synod of Bishops of
particularly special children (not as bur- Family in Rome 2015.
2014.
dens but as gifts of God), the effects of mi-
gration on families, the exploitation of
Listening to the Challenges women and their struggle for equal human
of Family rights as men all over the world, the exclu-
sion of the elderly in many parts, and the
We also had the honor of participating in failure to recognize their wisdom and their
the small-group discussions (“circuli mi- special role in transmitting the faith to their
nori”) where Cardinals, Archbishops and grandchildren, as well as the debilitating
Bishops, in turn, listened to us and other effect of poverty on families. Our ex-
auditors express in the concrete the chal- change also surfaced a disturbing reality:

15

the general hesitancy of the youth to get
married because of a strong sense of indi-
vidualism, the perceived irrelevance of sa-
cramental marriage, and a preferred mode
of living together, namely, cohabitation.
Given all that, however, we saw together
that while there were many challenges,
there was also much to celebrate and be
grateful for about family life, especially in
countries where family traditions and ga-
therings have been sustained, and where
families help married couples and other fa-
milies. Family-centered foundations like
Marriage Encounter, Retrovaille, Couples
for Christ, and other parish-supported or-
ganizations like the Basic Ecclesial Com-
munities such as we have in the
Philippines, LOAF especially in India,
offer much hope in the accompaniment of
married couples and families in the world.
Both in the plenary sessions with the Pope
and in the “circuli minori”, we as one
Church reiterated the sacredness of mar-
riage as ordained by God from the begin-
16
ning, and stressed that the family is the
community born from the marriage of man
and woman. All were in agreement that be-
cause of the present challenges that threa-
ten the family, there is a need for a more
intensive preparation for marriage, and this
preparation was to be the concerted effort
not only of the pastors of the Church, but
the pastors in partnership with married
couples themselves.
Emphasis was made on every married cou-
ple’s vocation to witness to the beauty of
marriage and family life, reflected in the
celebration of wedding anniversaries, pre-
cisely to show “the madness and gratuitou-
sness of the love between man and
woman” that flows from “the madness and
great love of Jesus.” In our listening to
one another and in our “journeying toge-
ther” as Body of Christ, regardless of
race or culture, we saw that the apprecia-
tion of marriage as a sacrament, as well as
of family life, comes from striving every-
day to be faithful, and from cooperating
with God’s grace, to PROCLAIM CHRIST
IN WORD AND DEED.
The family, however, cannot be turned in on
itself. Through our varied exchanges, we
saw that while the primary mission of fami-
lies is to proclaim Christ among the mem-
bers, they are called to minister to other
families, especially those in difficulty.
Lessons from the Synod
We learned from the Synod three basic
things: tenderness, inclusion, accompani-
ment. These were mentioned in reference to
a more involved, more intensified pastoral
ministry, but we, the lay have realized that
as co-workers in the Lord’s vineyard, we
must reflect these in our own families first.
“Tenderness means to give joyfully and, in
turn, to stir in another person the joy of fee-
ling loved...Dealing with delicacy and re-
spect means attending to wounds and
restoring hope in such a way as to revitalize
trust in the other...Tenderness in family re-
lationships is the virtue which helps people
overcome the everyday conflicts within the
person and in relation with others.” (Instru-
mentum Laboris #70).
Inclusion, on the other hand, means follo-
wing the Lord Jesus in accepting all persons
as brothers and sisters, no matter how diffe-
rent they are from us. They may not have
the same views as we, or they may not live
according to our standards of right and
wrong, or they may be condemned by so-
ciety for various reasons, but as Christians,
we are called to include them in our circle
of love and in our communities.
Accompaniment as stressed in the Synod,
is a “walking with” and is an act characteri-
zed by both mercy and truth as in the Em-
maus story. It is meant to be a “journeying
with” a person or a family, at times through
the path of conversion or repentance to-
wards fuller communion with Christ and the
Church.
Experiencing the Church in
the Synod
There are so many more things that can be
said about what transpired in the Synod. But
more than what was talked about, our expe-
rience was really an experience of “being
Church”, a listening, caring, praying
Church not made up of the Pope, the Bi-
shops and the Cardinals alone, but they and
the lay faithful, as well as the fraternal de-
legates “journeying together” to find solu-
tions to the many challenges to marriage
and family life.
Christian values, the first school of faith
and love.
It was, most of all, an experience of the lo-
ving, merciful God whom we have expe-
rienced in the person of Pope Francis
himself, in the communal prayer that ope-
ned and closed every session, in every de-
legate’s sincere effort at making a
contribution to the solution of the problems
affecting families, and in the way the Holy
Spirit has guided the entire Synod, leading
all of us to His Truth in the midst of variety
and diversity.
The synod concluded by saying that “Toda-
y’s families are sent forth as MISSIO-
NARY DISCIPLES”, proclaiming CHRIST
to other families, especially through the
WITNESS OF THEIR LIVES. The move-
ment is now from just being Domestic
Churches to being called beyond our nu-
clear families, evangelizing the bigger fa-
mily which is the world, or where the Spirit
leads us.
To the Lord of all Families be the glory!

The process of giving each Synod Father

and each auditor/auditor couple three minu-
tes for their intervention on any of the parts
of the Instrumentum Laboris was a very en-
riching and liberating experience. All the
delegates could “hear” the sincerity of the
listening. This was intensified in the small
groups where both the clergy and the lay
could speak freely, regardless of position or
designation, and everyone was respected
and acknowledged. We were especially
struck by the humility with which some bi-
shops of the West in our group would ask
from time to time, “Is that just our reality in
the West or is that universal?” or “Let me
know if there is too much of me in the sum-
mary or if I missed anything vital that so-
meone had said...”

It was an experience of internationality,

the richness and wisdom of different cultu-
res, made richer and wiser by the practice
of the Gospel. The facet of family life that
each culture shared deepened our apprecia-
tion for the gift and the treasure that is the
family, the first school of humanity and
17
 Love is our mission
Vũ Đức Hưng (John),
computer engineer and Vũ
Nguyễn Kim-Anh (Teresa),
optometrist, have been
married for 25 years and
have 5 children. They served
as lead for Family Ministry
with Đồng Hành CLC. They
are involved in 34 Marriage
Renewal Workshops in USA,
Canada, and Vietnam. They
are Đồng Hành CLC
members since 1985.
18
T
Hung & Kim-Anh Vu
he World Meeting of Families not only by our faith, but also by the values
(WMOF) in Philadelphia was the we have in regards to family and marriage.
highlight of our busy schedule this We were not alone but among a big family
year. Returning home from Vietnam Mar- of God. Never before did we feel so proud
riage Renewal Workshop and Team Forma- to be Catholic! It was wonderful to see many
tion in July, we carried within our hearts the families with young children. They were
Lord’s invitation to labor in his vineyard of beaming with joy and excitement, even
family ministry and renewed sense of being though it must be quite a sacrifice to bring
sent on mission. In preparation for the all the children out of the comfort of their
WMOF we read and reflected on the cate- home. When asked about how they were
chesis: Love is Our Mission: the Family feeling, one of the dads said, “we wanted the
Fully Alive. How wonderful it was to reflect kids to experience what it means to belong
on God’s Plan for the human race as it can to the universal Church, and to learn a thing
be carried out concretely within the context or two about the Church’s family values.”
of marriage and fam- There we also met
ily. We were re- We need to take care of many priests, reli-
minded once again of gious brothers and sis-
the beauty of the mar- the elderly and the young, ters of all sorts of
because the elderly carry orders.
ital covenant as it re-
flects profoundly the
covenant between with them the memories The schedule of each
God and His people, day was quite packed
between Christ and and history of our faith, with wonderful
the Church. In fact,
we feel that the cate- and the young carry with breakout sessionskeynote speakers,
and
them the future.
chesis lays down the liturgies. The speakers
Principle & Founda- were very articulate
tion for our life as in Ignatius’s Principle and and they spoke with passion and deep con-
Foundation, only in different terminologies. viction. Among our favorite keynote speak-
ers were: Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle’ of the
Arriving at the Philadelphia Convention Philippines, Bishop Barron of the US, and
Center, we were quite taken by the atmos- Pastor Rick Warren from California. Cardi-
phere of solidarity and enthusiasm of the nal Tagle’s speech “The Family: A Home for
20,000 attendees from all over the world. We the Wounded Heart” was particularly
met delegates from all five continents with poignant and touched everyone profoundly.
diverse backgrounds, but we were united by We enjoyed the many breakout sessions,
our Catholic faith. We were brought together each with its own messages from the speak-
ers. The highlight of the day was the mass
when everyone gathered to celebrate the Eu-
charist. The long procession of the many
priests, religious brothers and sisters, bish-
ops and cardinals was a sight to see. It was a
blessing to see so many who are committed
to the religious vocation and we felt edified
in our own marriage vocation.
Pope Francis’ long-awaited arrival was
“icing on the cake” as he presided over the
Festival of the Families. Thousands of peo-
ple gathered on Baldwin Parkway to sing,
dance, and celebrate. Wonderful clips of the
video Humanum were shown to remind us
of the beauty of marriage and family. Last
but not least, five families from different
continents shared with us poignant stories
as they live through the joys and challenges
of their family life, many of which we find
resonating in our own life. One of the com-
ments from the Pope that struck me was
when he said we need to take care of the
elderly and the young, because the elderly
carry with them the memories and history
of our faith, and the young carry with them
the future. It made us think of our ancestors,
our parents, as well as our children and the
younger generations after us. We are inter-
connected more deeply by our graced his-
tory, beyond family ties and genetics, and
what we do now and how we take care of
one another affect the whole human race.
In summary, the experience at WMOF left
deep impressions within our hearts. We ap-
preciate our own vocation of marriage and
realize more profoundly what it means to be
a sacrament for others as a couple living out
our marriage vows on a daily basis. “Love
is Our Mission: the Family Fully Alive” be-
comes the basis of our daily Examen when
we would check the pulse of the loving mo-
ments, when we our hearts move us to lov-
ing actions. Coming home from the
Meeting, we also have a deeper conviction
We are interconnected
more deeply by our graced
history, beyond family ties
and genetics, and what we
do now and how we take
care of one another affect
the whole human race
and renewed commitment to family min-
istry. It is truly a privilege to be with Christ
and to labor with Him. The countless hours
of involvement in Marriage Renewal Work-
shops and formation for the couples to serve
in this ministry are precious time being in
communion with Christ in mission.
We are grateful to be sent and supported by
our family and the CLC community. As we
savor the graces received, we also ponder
on how much more we can collaborate as an
apostolic body to labor in this frontier. We
so wish to see more CLC members becom-
ing involved in family ministry as it is the
frontier that is always in need of persons
and resources. With the gift of the Spiritual
Exercises and the spirit of communal dis-
cernment, we can do so much more in facil-
itating the families to encounter Christ in
their daily life. Perhaps we need to engage
in deeper conversations to see where the
Spirit would take us further into this fron-
tier. It would be awesome that World CLC
would unite and embrace this as our mission
in building a better family of God, fully
alive, and fully ablaze with His love.
On the other page:
- At the World meeting of Fami-
lies in Philadelphia.
- On the left: Hung and Kim Anh
with their children on their 25th
wedding anniversary.
19
 Report from PanAmazon
B
1. GOD’S TIMING
efore I share with you the experien-
ces of my first month on the Pan
Amazonian project, I want to briefly
relate the sequence of events that brought
me to this three-bordered country so far
from my own country and from the city
where I was born.
Some years back, while working in the Pro-
vincial Curate of the Jesuit Mission in
Ecuador, I read about an Itinerant Commu-
Lore (Ecuador) currently nity Project that was being carried out by a
works as the volunteer Spanish Jesuit by the name of Fernando
for the Amazon Project. López. This information alerted me to the
She shares her monthly possibility of a joint mission where lay-
reflections as a way to workers and Jesuit could work together in
unite with the world places where few might venture, but where
community's mission in there is great need. I have always conside-
the ecology frontier. red indigenous communities in the Amazon
to be villages steeped in history with an
ecological, environmentally-sensitive cul-
ture. I have always dreamed of getting to
know these communities better, including
those non-contact villages which have not
wanted any association with what we like
to call civilisation. But, of course, this path
would not be easy and it would require a
certain amount of sacrifice, so despite the
strength of the feeling, I found I preferred
to turn a deaf ear to the calling and let the
emotions pass.
Until one day, exactly one year ago, I found
myself, due to a change in personal circum-
stances, without a job, without a place to
live and with no financial security. It was
just at this time, while on one of my annual
Spiritual Retreats, that, after hearing more
about the Pan Amazonian Project, and,
again, about the work of Mauricio López,
who was a member of my local CVX, I felt
a renewed desire to follow this calling. My
companion at this retreat, P. Jorge Cela SJ,
encouraged me to start making some enqui-
ries and he told me to let God’s Will act
through me. He put me in touch with Mau
and later with Alfredo Ferro SJ, coordinator
of the Pan Amazonian Project. Emails flew
back and forth between us until Alfredo sug-
gested that I go to get to know Leticia, the
capital city of the Colombian Amazonian
Department, where the Community Project
20
Lorena Perez
was situated, and where I could meet the
members of the project community and
staff. This experience would give me the
light and the tools to discern whether or not
to go ahead with the volunteer work. I must
thank the community there for their kind
words to me to help me decide my course,
“the fact that you have come here does not
force you to volunteer, you must feel free to
decide.” These words were the key to me
making my final decision.
I have always shared with my family my
wish to be a volunteer. Right from the be-
ginning, my father, my siblings, my nieces
and my sisters-in-law have all given me
their support, even if they couldn’t fully un-
derstand the depth of my desire. Not that I
myself could understand it clearly - the spi-
rit acting in me was like a flame that burnt
from within and could not be hidden - per-
haps it was a way to give something back in
return for all the goodness that I had recei-
ved over the years as a member of CVX. I
give thanks to the blessing of my family for
always supporting me.
The following month, at the end of May, Al-
fredo, Mauricio and I met up in Quito. This
meeting was to mark the moment when I
would sign up for a year of volunteering.
Once all the red tape of visas and paperwork
was cleared I could then set off on my jour-
ney to Leticia. Along with the little money
I carried with me, I brought the single-min-
ded faith that I was going with God. I disco-
vered that no time is better than God’s time,
when events start to coalesce and everything
flows. You have no more than to say “your
will be done.”
So, having shared with you the sequence of
events that got me here, I would like to
share with you how this Ignacian spirituality
has imbued my first four weeks on the Pan-
Amazonian mission so far. I would like to
say that never before have I experienced
with such clarity the “conquer thy Self” phi-
losophy of which Ignacio speaks at the be-
ginning of each Spiritual Retreat. I have had
to conquer my Self each time I have felt the
heat start to get the better of me, and each
time the itch of a mosquito bite has stopped
me from sleeping. I have overcome a fear
of the bats which live in my cabin and I
have overcome the negative self-talk which
tells me I am more city-folk than I had ima-
gined. In the midst of all these small tests I
have continued to find our Lord Jesus in the
beauty of God’s Creation.
I have felt it each day when I am awoken by
a chorus of birdsong. Never before have I
heard so many birds sing together, and I still
hope to one day be able to distinguish each
unique bird and song. Along with these be-
autiful awakenings there are breathtaking
sunsets. The evening sky fills with such dif-
ferent shades of colour it resembles a fire in
the sky and, as the sun gently lowers, this
light blends into the river and the vegeta-
tion, making everything of the one same
light. It is truly beautiful.
I have felt it when I enjoy the faces of peo-
ple in Leticia and in the two communities
that up to now I have visited: Nazareth and
Arara. Each face reflects a light and shadow,
each carries a dream. They all have a unique
way of looking after this earth and being at
one with nature. They know intuitively if a
cloud means rain, or if it will soon pass over
and be tossed away by the wind, like the lea-
ves that flutter in the trees.
I have felt it in the times of silence when I
listen, watch, and contemplate - letting
everything I see and feel around me touch
my heart. Like a sponge, I hope to absorb
as much as I can from these people, ap-
proaching them with a simple look or a
smile to let them know who I am and what
I am doing here.
In some cases I receive a warm smile from
them in return, other times a long silence.
Eventually they present a question to me and
little by little the ice breaks as a relationship
starts to form and they share their life stories.
These stories are sometimes ones of grati-
tude. Sometimes they are stories of pain. In
both cases we can find God.
I give thanks to our Lord that on these visits
I am accompanied by a native tikuna pas-
toralist whose name is Magnolia, and by a
nun who is called Sister Noelia. These
women and I prepare meals together, clear
up after dinner, meet for planning or evalu-
ation sessions and at the same time find time
to share our stories together, our goals, our
hopes and our fears.
This mission complements my participation
in a course covering the Socio-political
Movements of CVX. The documents that I
read on that course motivated me to try my
hardest to live in the best possible way as a
Christian. One phrase that stuck with me
was: “an authentic faith never is comfortable
nor individualistic. It always implies a pro-
found desire to change the world, to transmit
values, to leave something better from our
short time spent on this earth.” EG183
I ask for your prayers so that I may continue
on this path, opening my heart to the people
as they let me enter their lives. Let me nour-
ish them as they nourish me, so that I may
keep giving the best of my voluntary service.
Below: Lorena doing her daily
Original in Spanish
task.
Translated by Sarah Walker
21
 I
2. BREAKING UP THE GROUND WITHIN ME
this second report, I want to share with
you that after having spent eight weeks
here the novelty of knowing the place is
wearing off a little, i.e. meeting new things
around here. Leticia is a small town of about
50,000 inhabitants without many cultural or
leisure activities. Nevertheless, novelties are
still felt and liked, although they appear less,
especially when I visit communities, because
I see new faces, new scenery, and hear new
I must descend stories that encourage me to continue open-
ing to the newness of the Kingdom.
to the bottom
of my heart This is a new season in which to remove the
backpack I came with, a backpack full of
and, of course, ideologies, feelings, positions, knowledge
that I now think did not help me; on the con-
this scares me, trary, I feel these things limited me. Now I
feel it is time to start breaking up the
since it is not ground, not only the external ground but
rather that of my interior to open the way to
easy to face my God, to that living God who wants to reveal
Himself to me and who I can only find
fears, desires, when I cease to seek Him outside of me. I
must descend to the bottom of my heart and,
emptiness, of course, this scares me, since it is not easy
to face my fears, desires, emptiness, ques-
questions... tions... etc. And I need to believe, although
sometimes I do not feel it, that God is there
beside me and in me. That which draws me
to Him the most is that I must live in the
truth without deceiving myself, acknowl-
edging my errors, my limitations, and also
my gifts which are given from above, which
help me see the truth about others but
through the eyes of mercy.These "ghosts"
(reflections) begin to appear in the solitude
of silence, in which I realize that in some
Below: Scenes from Lorena’s cases I'm seeing from my own perspective
daily work. and in my own shoes. For example, I notice
that the families in the majority of commu-
22
nities have Direct TV service (satellite
dishes), internet and cell phones with the lat-
est technology. I realize the influence that
these devices have upon the young people
who are very similar to the youth in any city
in the West, using the same style of clothing
(very tight pants for men), same hairstyle,
way of walking, gestures, etc.).
Parents have the same concerns as parents
who live in the large cities: they complain
about this way of dressing, of thinking... and
do not know what to do. The influence of
TV and technology rapidly changes the way
of life and mode of thinking of the youth
and children, at a speed which I do not feel
they are ready to handle. In communities
where electrical power is available the en-
tire day, the children do less sport and spend
less time enjoying nature, while the elderly
observe with concern how their ethnic iden-
tity is being lost and how their customs and
habits are being left behind and, in some
cases, even their language, as they adopt an
American-style culture. I don't know
whether to call it that, but this globalization
tool (internet, satellite dishes, etc.) is a mon-
ster that is quickly absorbing them.
From what I see, I sometimes think "they
should not have these tools", they should not
have TV. But I also ask myself; who am I to
limit or say that they must do or stop doing?
Just like me, they have the right to choose
what they want, to do things right and to
make mistakes, as I've done it and still do.
And I'm silently thinking what should be
done. It is in those moments that God ap-
pears and I feel he's telling me to let it be and
to be with Him, to treat them with tender-
ness, listen to them, which is the best thing I
can do. For the time being, this point of con-
tact must be provided, hugging them as they
are, so they can share their joys, their sor-
rows and for me to walk with them. If it ac-
tually happens, it would probably be good to
provide a platform for discussion on how
these "Western" tools have actually affected
us, and in the end, as always, they will be the
ones making their own decision. I think that
this situation can be one of the causes of the
high rate of suicide among adolescents in
these communities, because I realize that
many with whom I have spoken no longer
want to be indigenous but, at the same time,
they do not have the tools to live in this
highly competitive Western world where
what we know is rated higher than who we
are. Because I believe that we as a mestizo
race are not very well prepared to welcome
with dignity our indigenous brothers and ac-
company this transition process in which a
culture is being swept away even against our
wishes. There is still a lot for me to discover.
These are only a few thoughts that are
emerging from what I am observing.
The pace here is different. I'm learning to
dance to this new beat at a much slower
pace. Sometimes when it's my turn to give
a word of reflection (homily) I'm amazed
when I realize that I have the role of teacher
in my blood, by involving the people, ask-
ing, translating their daily life into images,
and confronting them with questions such
as: What does God want for your commu-
nity? The intention thereof is that this word
be translated into a specific action in their
day to day living. Sometimes when I have
finished, I have been surprised by the ap-
plause of the people. I then imagine that I
must have said something that touched their
heart and I recognize that it is not me but
God's Spirit that speaks through me.
At other times I feel that I'm not doing any-
thing, because I go and listen to the people,
chat with them, from one house to another,
and serve myself some food thus concluding
the day. Without planning, without a goal to
achieve, just being there. Now I realize that
this is shepherding, it is being there and
"smelling like sheep". As the Pope says, ob-
serve them, know them one by one, try to
discover how they feel, how they think, look
at them with tenderness and let Jesus be the
Good Shepherd. He is the One who works
quietly inside them and inside of me. I have
learned that there are thoughts that help and
others that usually tend to be questions that
distract from what is essential. I realize now
how much these rules of discernment of the
Spiritual Exercises are helping me.
I begin to feel how hard it is to implement
the "go where no one else goes" and it's
costly! Of course it costs, knowing that after
multiple adventures, exhausted, very thirsty,
sweating... you arrive and realize that there
was no Chapel that day, that only twice a
year, if lucky, a priest or missionaries pay a
visit to provide a supporting role during
Christmas and Easter services. These people
desire so much to be heard that a family
visit lasts more than one hour and you do
not want to interrupt because they are open-
ing their heart and you do not want to lose
that moment of grace. That is when I feel
gratitude for having been chosen to be in
this place. Despite the exhaustion, I feel
how much good it does to be present there
in that place with those brothers and sisters
of mine.
I have also been able to participate in a talk
about Leadership with the Vicariate Youth
Group. This experience has helped me real-
ize that I really like working with young
people, they are good soil in which to plant
so that God can then harvest what has been
sown. This has thus been a brief outline of
this second month, with its "normal" ups
and downs as expressed by some nuns who
are friends of mine (Tati and Maria of
Tabatinga) with whom Analu put me in con-
tact in order to share the solitude. Their
company and sharing has been good for me.
Thank you!
"When you're far away you will discover
the closeness of the people who love you
most," they told me. This is another truth
that has been confirmed to me. Today I
value my family more than ever, those who
unconditionally communicate with me via
Whatsapp or by phone, always concerned
about my welfare. Also those soul friends
who are almost like brothers and sisters,
who are also concerned about me from dif-
ferent corners of our Latin America, with
their prayers, with their messages or calls,
and with whom I can just be myself, sharing
with them all my experiences here in this
mission and who's company I feel in spite
of the distance.
To conclude, I would like to leave a phrase
from the Social Political Advocacy Course
which I enjoyed a lot and encourages me,
"The SDC (Social Doctrine of the Church) is The World
more than a theory, it is oriented towards ac- Community can
tion" and that is what I try to do each day that accompany Lorena
I am here. I encourage my brothers and sisters
of CLC to try to put in practice this phrase and in her work as a
to openly express that desire to serve and to volunteer in the
be in face-to-face contact with the poorest
people of the country and of the world. Dis- Amazon Project.
cern and discover when your time arrives and Her sharings will be
launch out because you are not alone.
published monthly
I hope I am not tiring you. I will try to be in the CLC website
briefer in the next reports. Hugs to all and cvx-clc.net and
please support me with your prayers know- Facebook page
ing you can count on mine as well.
(@CVXCLC).
Original in Spanish
Translated by Clifford Schisler
23
 Starting Young

Sharing the CLC Vocation during World Youth Day, Krakow, 2016

The young people of our community took part in World Youth Day in Krakow and in
preparing the CLC Booth in the Centre for Vocation in Cracovia Stadium. Thanks to
the experience of working with people from countries of almost all continents, they
felt like a real part of the World Christian Life Community. Through the coordination
of Najat Sayegh (World ExCo Secretary and Youth Commission Head), the following
participated: Barry Serafin, Marta Ratkiewicz, Ania Kołtunowska, Basia Gąsiorek,
Magda Jarząbkowska, Margaret Sulej and Ania Wilamek. Also with them were Wal-
iszewska Kinga, Anna Haltof and Ewa Nawałka. Together with members of CLC Ar-
gentina, Brazil, the Netherlands, Spain, Hong Kong, England, Lithuania, Sweden,
Portugal, Romania and France we talked with the youth who came. For most of them
it was the first encounter with the global community. They experienced closeness,
shared experiences and a similar commitment. We experienced a pleasant surprise,
as many people from all over the world, especially from Asia, participated in the Spir-
itual Exercises. Our booth was usually teeming with numerous conversations and
meetings with youth visitors. It was also a place for exchange of experiences from dif-
ferent countries from the EU and for mutual understanding. Young people had the op-
portunity to talk with us about their search for God and learn of the existence of our
communities around the world.
CLC Poland
Below from left to right:
(www.wzch.org.pl)
- Polish members in the
CLC booth: Waliszewska Anna Haltof in Krakow and getting a chance to know
some CLC members.
Poland, Warsaw
King, Ania Wilemak, Anna
Haltof and Katarzyna
Serafin (the main contact I was very happy to participate in the
in Poland). Anna Haltof (Poland) is 60 years old married, Forum of Vocation. In my opinion, it was

M
- With the Pope in the mother of two adult sons. She works as radio- a good time and a good experience for all
Vocation Center (looks a logist in the Warsaw public clinic hospital. She of us from CLC, after the Lebanon Assem-
real presence!).
- The Cross and the The
is member of Slowo CLC in Warsaw. bly in 2013. First of all, we were able to get
Icon of the Mother of God to know each other better. We spent time
Salus Populi Romani y spiritual experience this year enjoying ourselves in direct contact – face
symbols of WYD. involves going to the World to face, as opposed to email or skype. I
Youth Day / Centre for Vocation think it was a big step for CLC, to have a
new way of building our community, and
being together – young people, adults, and
the men and women from different coun-
tries of the world. I'm a shy person and I
am uneasy talking with people using my
poor English. However, I had a good time
with young people and members of CLC.
We received new strength and new creativ-
ity for the future.
I only worked for a short time there [in the
Vocation Center booth] but I needed that
time while waiting for Pope Francesco to-
gether with all those who love him and lis-
ten to him. I often didn't understand people,
I had trouble and made mistakes but I felt
the spirit of St. Ignatius in the organization
of our service and in preparing the Voca-
tion Center. We invited a lot of people to
get to know St. Ignatius and to practice his
steps in building relationships with God
and Jesus. We helped people discover the
importance of reading the Bible, to find
suitable sessions and recollections with
Jesus, and to join their local Christian com-
munities. I got on well with most of the
people I met. I think the encounter had the
greatest value and an interactive way of re-
alizing our mission as CLC.
Through her emails, Najat told us that we
have the same spiritual language and have
the same dream, the same values of being
in the world, the same common mission in
Church. I agree with her with all my heart.
It was holy time which offered us the pos-
sibility of change in our lifestyles, friend-
ships and relationships, and sharing
something with others. In my opinion, we
should meet from time to time and be more
interested in helping each other with re-
spect and love. We were really grateful for
feeling the community, laughing and hav-
ing fun, using our hands and faces to speak.
The encounter filled me with a new
strength to be creative. May God help me
in moving towards the right direction.
Virginia
H
CLC Lithuania
i, my name is Virginia. I’m a CLC
member from Lithuania. My com-
munity sent me to the Vocation
Forum in the WYD in Krakow and finally,
after lots of doubt, I agreed to take the chal-
lenge.
Arrival at Krakow and settling in the parish
was quite difficult and tiring, because I
came there alone, without a group. I
thought then that it was quite a stupid step.
I felt very lonely and lost.
But all of it changed as soon as I came to
the Krakow stadium, where the Vocation
Forum was going on. I met wonderful peo-
ple from my community and felt friendship
and lots of common things, even if we were
all from different countries. I felt as if I was
at home, in my community, among my
own. Thus I experienced the international
dimension of CLC.
It was very good to hear what similarities
and differences CLC has in various coun-
tries. All the time there were quite many of
us in the booth and it was very nice. We
talked to young people sharing our own ex-
periences, how CLC helps us to find our
 vocation, Ignatian spirituality, spreading
the leaflets, etc.

It was a great experience, so thank you,

Najat, for all the help to come to the WYD
and the Vocation Forum. And thank you,
too, to the Polish team for their kindness,
friendliness, and help.

Let the Lord return abundant graces to all

of you.

Your friend in Christ.

Sara Tong
CLC Hong Kong

I
Sara has been member of CLC (HK) for more
than 10 years.

t's been a consolation to represent CLC

Hong Kong to take part in the Vocation
Forum during World Youth Day at
Krakow. I had the opportunity to meet
Najat from World CLC ExCo, CLC
friends from Poland, Britain and other
parts of the world. We had a great time
sharing about our own local communities
and we sang our community hymns to-
gether. It's always exciting to meet and
commune with CLC members from
around the world because even though we
lead different ways of life, we all speak the
same language through our sharing of the
same Ignatian Spirituality. I felt a strong
bond and sense of belonging within the
same community. I had a marvelous time
introducing CLC and the Ignatian Spiritu-
ality to the youth visiting our booth and
playing games with them. It's been invalu-
able to meet my brothers and sisters in the
CLC worldwide during WYD.

Even though we may be apart globally--

back to our own daily lives, as we journey
onwards on life's pilgrimage, carrying out
our individual ministries for the greater
glory of God -- may God's bounteous
mercy and grace continue to be bestowed
upon our community, so that our hearts
may always be one.

God bless you all.

26
Vansi Kwok
CLC Hong Kong
Vansi has been a CLC Member for more than 10
years. She is an anaesthesiologist and song wri-
ter/musician, member of A.M.D.G.-a Hong Kong
Catholic music band producing music inspired
by Ignatian Spirituality.
This is my first World Youth Day. This is
also my first time meeting with CLC mem-
bers from across the globe and my first
time helping world CLC. Indeed, I have
been looking forward to such opportunities
for a long time now. :)
During World Youth Day, we were asked
to help in the Forum of Vocation where a
booth for CLC was set up. We were invited
to talk with young people about CLC and
Ignatian Spirituality. Najat and her team
also prepared a lot of leaflets in various
languages introducing the Examen and
some simple games to play.
It certainly is a challenge for me to TALK
about Ignatian Spirituality especially with
people from very different cultures and in
English. Ignatian Spirituality is a topic so
broad that, at first, I found it hard to start.
Later, I chose to talk about my personal ex-
periences with young people when they
came to me: "How CLC changed me" and
"How Ignatian Spirituality changed me". I
am glad that I did open myself to talk.
There were a lot of nice discussions and en-
counters which later became my consola-
tions that afternoon.
I remember a discussion with a girl from
Slovakia. We talked for 20 minutes. At the
end [of our conversation], she burst into
tears. I was startled and was afraid that I
had said something wrong. But then she
told me they were tears of consolation. She
felt very consoled after learning about the
"examen", "finding God in all things" and
listening to our experiences. It was because
she was actually feeling very uncertain
about her future and also troubled by being
distant from God and not knowing what to
do. And when I talked to her about my past
experiences, she felt that she was not alone
and felt hopeful. She felt her prayers were
heard. Indeed, I was very touched too. I
never knew that my simple sharing could
have such power. I believe that the Holy
Spirit must’ve been present among us dur-
ing our conversation. Thanks be to God. In the other page from top to
bottom:
- The many faces of the youth
There was also a young man from China (I of the World Community, uni-
was glad that I could speak to him in Chi- ted in sharing Ignatian Spiri-
nese). He was very interested as he had al- tuality.
- Ignatian tools, prayers and
ready learnt a little about St. Ignatius when brochures which the youth
he was studying in Portugal. Later he also volunteers used to share with
shared with me about his conversion (as visitors.
none of his family members nor friends - CLC members from Hong
Kong (Sara Tong is in front and
were Catholic) and what moved him to Vansi Kwok is in the middle).
baptism three years ago. It was another
touching moment.
27

Below from top to bottom:
- WYD- Welcoming cere-
mony representing CLC-
(left- José David Lopes CLC
Sweden/ right- Ignacio Ruiz
Salcedo CLC Argentina).
- In the back: Bernadett
Belenyi and Henrietta
Fleisz (Romania), Najat
Sayegh, Marta Ratkiewicz
(Poland). In the front:
Vansie Kwok (HongKong),
Katarzyna Serafin (Poland),
José David Lopes (Portugal
but living in Sweden), Sara
Tong (HongKong), Virginia
Žiugždaitė (Lithuania).
28
I am surprised at how much people are
willing to open their hearts and let us
glimpse God's great work in their lives
when we are willing to open ours, even
though it was just a very brief time. I am
also amazed that despite diverse cultures
and countries, our desire for God is very
much the same.
May God continue to guide us all. AMDG!
José David Lopes
CLC Portugal
José David Lopes is 31-year-old Portuguese li-
ving in Stockholm, where he is post-doc resear-
cher in Speech Technology at the Royal Institute
of Technology. He is member of Gourmet CVX
F
Sul, Lisbon, Portugal and English Speaking CLC,
Stockholm, Sweden.
or me it was a great pleasure to be at
the Vocation Forum with CLC.
Meeting other young people that live
in an Ignatian way in their own countries,
being able to share our experiences, how
our own communities are organized, how
we ended up in CLC was one of the highest
moments of my week in Krakow. This
meeting led to some follow ups regarding
sharing meeting materials or putting people
in contact to start new CLC groups in some
parts of the world. I also found it very pos-
itive to talk about what CLC was to people
passing by the booth. Sometimes I felt I
was giving my own view of CLC when
talking about the community. On the other
hand, I thought some people were really in-
terested in what I was telling them about
Ignatian Spirituality, which I think is CLC's
biggest treasure and something we should
try to spread around us.
There were a lot of interesting conversa-
tions with people that were passing by the
booth and had some contact with Ignatian
spirituality or the Jesuits but haven't heard
about us before.
It was also great to represent CLC at the
events with the Pope. I really felt that I was
representing not only the youth CLC but
the whole CLC. Having a Pope that shares
this Ignatian background with us made it
even more special.
On the practical side I think we had a very
good location at the vocation center. Per-
haps we were not very visible, since we
could easily be confused with other visi-
tors. Maybe dressing all the same way
would’ve made us even more visible. I
liked the vests that the Lebanon delegation
had. In a future WYD we could try to have
something similar for people staying at the
booth.
Some people seemed immediately inter-
ested in having some local person they can
contact to join CLC. I think we need to
work out these links better. Either by col-
lecting a list of contact persons in each
community before the next WYD or build
up a team that routes people to their na-
tional communities
I proposed this at the last Eurolink meeting
and the CLC Europe was very open to it.
Maybe this is something that could be en-
couraged by the World ExCo as well.
It was also very good to have at least two
of us representing CLC at each event. I was
a little bit concerned that I was the only one
attending the Way of the Cross. At least,
while we waited for the event we got to
know each other a little bit better, since
there was not much time at the booth.
Finally, a word about Magis. If it is true
that many of the CLC members that were
inable gift, a blessing for me and for all my
community. I don´t have words, just
THANKS.
I feel so grateful and I hope to transmit all
the good I received to my community.
Hope to see you soon. Blessings.
Marie-Emmanuelle Reiss
CLC France

I
at the vocation center took part in Magis,
Marie-Emmanuelle Reiss has been living in Paris for
it is not necessarily true that all the Magis
11 years. She has been a CLC member for 10 years.
participants knew about CLC, although we
were acknowledged in the Magis booklet.
was very pleased when Amélie told me
I don't know about the current contribution
that there was a CLC booth at the Vo-
of CLC to Magis, but maybe we could
cations Forum during the WYD. I said
have a more active role in Magis, by hav-
straight away that it was OK for me to take
ing CLC teams preparing and leading
part in it.
Magis experiments in a future edition.
When I arrived on Wednesday afternoon, I
I'm sharing the photo of me and Nacho rep-
was a bit shy and very happy at the same
resenting CLC at the Papal welcome.
time to meet Najat again! We met several
And thank you, Najat, for making this hap-
times before. The booth was very well or-
pen and keeping the contact with us to pre-
ganized, with many flyers. I was quite im-
pare our booth at the vocation center!
pressed!
God bless!
The time schedule was quite calm. It was
interesting to get to know Virginia, from
CLC Lithuania. Explaining CLC in Eng-
Ignacio Ruiz Salcedo lish was OK, in German more challenging.
CLC Argentina So I was happy to talk about CLC with Waiting for the Pope in the
French speaking people; that was easier! I Blonia Park to start the Way of
the Cross. From left to right:
met some people just having a look, and Guadalupe Ocampos and

F
Ignacio is an Argentinian young lawyer, born
and raised in a small province of the country,
now living in Buenos Aires city.
also people much more interested. I re- Ignacio Ruiz Salcedo (Ar-
member girls from Belgium who already gentina), Rabih Al Bitar and
knew the Jesuits and were really looking Najat Sayegh (Lebanon), Cris-
for something for them with the same spir- tian Morales (Argentina).

irst of all, I want to give huge thanks

to all the people who worked hard to
make [the Vocation Center] booth
possible. It was really beautiful to share this
experience with you all. Due to my limited
English speaking skills I´m sure that the
words and phrases that I said to the people
I talked with in the booth came directly
from the bottom of my heart. Simple words
but with a lot of happiness and passion,
willing to transmit the message of CLC. To
put into words what we believe, what we
are and to open my heart was challenging
but at the same time so rewarding.

Being with Jose representing CLC in the

welcoming ceremony was such an unimag-

29

Below:
- From left to right: Fr. Ward
Biemens SJ, EA of CLC in the
Netherlands and Barbara
Gąsiorek (Poland).
- Magdalena Jarzębkowska
- The last day of the Forum,
before leaving the booth. From
left to right: Aramis Marin
(Mexico/ France), Amélie
(France), Rahih and Najat
(Lebanon), Marie-Emmanuelle
(France), Ania Wilemak
(Eurolink for Poland), José
David Lopes (Portugal/
Sweden), Virginia Žiugždaitė
(Lituania).
On the other page:
- From left to right: Barbara
Gąsiorek (Poland), Myriam
(Spain, living in UK), Paola
Menegotto (Brasil), Noelia Díez
(Spain), Katarzyna Serafin
(Poland).
- Vigil with Pope Francis.
30
ituality. I'm convinced we planted seeds in
the people who came to our booth. Only
God knows what will happen then.
Friday midday and afternoon was really
crowded. I was very excited to come again!
Many people came to our booth! Fortu-
nately, we were members from France, Por-
tugal, Poland, Lithuania and Argentina. So
we could answer nearly every visitor in
his/her mother language: I found it richer
and fuller. Each time I met someone speak-
ing one of our spoken languages, I was
happy to send him/her to a CLC member
speaking his/her language. We also had time
to discuss among ourselves, to see that we
knew some other CLC members in common.
The cleaning time at the closure on Friday was
very friendly. I felt very comfortable in this
booth, like with my friends. And whenever I
remember this time, I always smile. When I
left, I thought that I wanted to travel to visit all
the CLC members I met at the booth.
An improvement for the next time: put the
CLC booth next to the Jesuits’ booth as we
are of the same spiritual family.
When I read the testimonies from the other
CLC members, I thought that I would have
wanted to meet all of them!
See you!
Magdalena Jarzębkowska
I
CLC Poland
would also like to share my testimony
with you, from the perspective of the
person living in Kraków, working here,
using public transport, shopping, cooking
and doing all the normal and sometimes
boring things that fill up our lives.
World Youth Days were like a joyful and
colorful tornado that changed this city and
walking these streets every day I still can
see in my memory how wonderful it can be
when young spirits come together in the
name of Christ. I remember people from Ar-
gentina singing their national anthem in a
tram, I remember concerts on the riverbanks
and silent adoration just next to the scene
and coming back home late dancing and
singing. It was like a big festival organised
to praise God and to share the happiness
with others.
The Church in Poland is rather traditional
and you might not always see this Christian
joy in our prayers or during the Holy Mass.
That is why I am so happy that Polish peo-
ple have seen this multinational, open and
happy face of the Catholic Church.
I really wanted to have a whole week of hol-
iday to participate freely in WYD events
and to be at our CLC booth every day. Un-
fortunately, this was not possible, as my
boss did not agree to give me days off at
work. At first I was angry about this, but
later on it turned out that this situation en-
abled me to be the first witness of WYD and
the apostle in my workplace.
Most people I work with are far away from
Church. Although most of them believe in
God in their own way, I heard a lot of criti-
cism and complaints about the Church,
WYD, priests and pilgrims before WYD
had even started. This was sad to hear. This
was why I decided to wear my pilgrim yel-
low rucksack every day to work :). And so,
in the morning I was at work and in the af-
ternoon I was participating in prayers, con-
certs and visiting our booth. I was the only
person from my team at work who decided
to participate in WYD, so all the people
were asking me questions and I was really
excited to tell them how great the atmos-
phere was on the streets and how people
from all around the world were kind.
I felt that slowly the attitude of some of my
colleagues from work changed. It was a
great pleasure to hear from them "Good
luck and have fun and take care!" when I
came on my last workday on Thursday, as
on Friday I finally I had the day off. Despite
the fact that I was totally exhausted after
WYD, combining WYD events with work,
I felt that this was my small mission from
God to bring WYD spirit to my workplace
In our CLC booth we had a map of the world
with all the countries in which our commu-
nity is gathering. When I looked at this map
and when I met people from CLC from all
around the world I felt for the first time how
big we are and how blessed we are by God
to continue St Ignatius work. It is very up-
lifting to know that I am a part of such a big
community! Now I know, wherever I go I
can find people from CLC. Young people
now are modern nomads; it’s good to know
where we can look for the helping hand of
someone sharing the same values.
and men are lost and confused (just as I was
some time ago). Ignatian methods of exa-
men, prayer and meditation are really help-
ful here and this is our mission to make
them widely known.
Also, I am so happy to have been the host
for Virginia from the Lithuanian CLC.
Thank you Virginia! Also great thanks to Fr.
Perreira for the prayer and our conversation
on the first day of WYD.
Reflecting upon Christian Life Community
participation in WYD, I think it would be
nice to know more about local communities
from different countries. Maybe it is possi-
ble to share our local web pages or Face-
book pages?
Also together with Polish CLC members
from different cities we decided to organise
a small version of CLC youth days in
Poland to integrate more young members
and make more connections between com-
munities in our own country, as WYD was
where some of us met for the first time.
Thank you all again and God bless you!

I think Ignatian spirituality is very needed

nowadays, as we live so fast, surrounded by
a chaos of information, meeting so many
more people and seeing so many more
places than our grandfathers and grand-
mothers could ever see. It is so important to
learn to meditate on our deeds in the light
of the Word of God. So many young women
Remembrance of Fred Leone
CLOuD OF WITNESSES
Maria Magdalena Palencia
“…, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us
throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And
O
let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.”
f all the benefits received from God
by virtue of CLC, the ‘cloud of wit-
nesses’ around us and made up of so
many brothers and sisters who have gone
before us to the Father’s house, is certainly
not a minor one. From all generations and
all nationalities, each and every one, with
their fidelity and witness of their lives, en-
courage us to “free ourselves from every
handicap and to run with perseverance the
race that lies before us”.
Fred Leone has just joined this cloud of wit-
nesses. Through the witness of his life he
has left us a fresh invitation and encourage-
ment to move forward.
I met him, albeit very briefly, at the Assem-
bly of Augsburg ‘73 – the first one in which
I participated - and he with the others who
were then members of the ExCo left with
many of us an impression of seriousness,
consistency and generous dedication that al-
(Heb 12:1)
lowed this group of brothers and sisters to
re-orient the then Federation of Christian
Life Communities after the crisis experien-
ced in the previous Assembly in Santo Do-
mingo. Along with most of those who
composed the ExCo, Fred was elected for a
new period of service, which would end in
Manila’76.
In Manila’76, Fred was nominated to the
position of World President and I believe it
was really sad not to have been elected to
that post.
At its first meeting in Rome, the new ExCo
decided to create a working group and two
international commissions to address the
priorities mandated by the Assembly - a
group for Spirituality, especially the SpEx,
and two commissions: Formation and Mis-
sion for Service.
When considering whom to invite to join
these bodies, in addition to ExCo members
spread among the various bodies, it was
Fred who was identified for the Mission for
Service Commission. His response was an
immediate and generous acceptance and un-
dertaking; accepting with great simplicity
and humility a position of co-worker instead
of the presidency to which he had aspired.
So I did have the grace to know him more
closely as we shared in that same committee
to which he contributed with initiative and
effectiveness the great wisdom and expe-
rience he had in this field. He became pro-
foundly interested in the response to the call
of CLC discerned as an international apo-
stolate; we explored this at the time because
of the recent acceptance of the World Fede-
ration as a member of the UN Ecosoc. He
attended the meetings convened and
brought to the commission all that was re-
quired of him, and more.
At the next World Assembly Rome ‘79, he
was nominated again as a possible world
president, a nomination he accepted again
with great desire to serve. And once again it
was not meant to be. With humility and ge-
nerosity, he then accepted the position of
vice-president, while joking about his re-
cord - he was a specialist in statistics – of
being the only member of the Community
who had been defeated three times in the
election for president. He became integrated
fully into the ExCo as they proceeded to
help what was now a World Community, to
grow, consolidate and consciously assume
its role in the international arena.
He was naturally a key liaison and promoter
for the next Assembly which took place in
the US: Providence’82. Along with Betty,
his inseparable companion, and the
excellent organizing team, he was a
terrific host and helped create an at-
mosphere of peace and prayer that
was so important for the confirma-
tion of our option to become a sin-
gle community and no longer a
Federation of federations or com-
munities.
Without wanting to become an
ExCo member by right or nomina-
tion he continued to be always inte-
rested and involved in the global
dimension and he gave whatever
service was asked of him or was at
his fingertips. He also continued to
serve the community in the United
States and was re-elected national
president, so we met again in
Omaha’87.
With gratitude and affection, I give
thanks today for the life and testimony of
Above: Fred Leone.
Fred. For his bonhomie and sense of humor, Below from left to right: Fred
his joy at times almost childlike and the se- Leone, Josée Gsell and Nick Rie-
riousness of his commitment, experience man SJ.
and professional capacity given in service - The ExCo elected in Rome
and shared with simplicity, coherence, fra- 1979 and the Secretariat staff.
- Fred Leone with Marte Vin-
ternity and friendship always expressed zons.
with warmth.
Today he is already part of the Cloud of
Witnesses with whom the Lord blesses
CLC. Through his intercession and example
we ask the Lord to be freed from all handi-
caps to stay, with perseverance, in the race
that lies before us.
Original in Spanish
Translated by David Formosa
 MY MEMORIES OF FRED C. LEONE
Marie A. Schimelfening

“We live this way of Christian life in joyful communion

with all those who have preceded us,
grateful for their efforts and apostolic accomplishments.
In love and prayer we join those many men and women
of our spiritual tradition who have been proposed to us
by the Church as friends and valid intercessors

T
who help us to fulfill our mission.”
(General Principles #3)

Marie has been a Sodality /
CLC member for over fifty
years. She served as CLC Ex-
ecutive Secretary (1971-
1975) and as Executive
Director (1975-1980) of CLC
USA. Marie was a delegate
to several World assemblies
and was World ExCo Secre-
tary (1982 - 1990). She
serves as a CLC NGO repre-
sentative to the United Na-
tions in New York. She is a
member of the Nick Rie-
man, S.J. Guides CLC and a
guide for the Companions
CLC, both in Detroit.
Below: The cover of the book
“Journey” written by Fred
Leone, downloadable at:
goo.gl/uS8MG1
he best description that I can give of
Dr. Fred C. Leone is the “eternal opti-
mist.” Those who knew him would
not have a problem saying that he was truly
an optimistic person. Whenever our national
or local CLC was in a bind, whether it be fi-
nancially or in planning a convention or a dif-
ficult program, Fred would say, “We can do
this!” And more often than not, we did it be-
cause of his optimism and enthusiasm. Yes,
it rubbed off on many of us. So when I think
I can’t do something that is asked of me, I re-
member my dear friend who would say to
me, “You can do it.” Then I do not hesitate.
Fred was a statistician by profession. He
served as Executive Director of the Ameri-
can Statistical Association (ASA) from
1973 until his retirement in 1988. Under his
leadership, membership in ASA grew sub-
stantially as he guided its transformation
from a scientific society to a professional
association with an international presence.
While he travelled around the world on
business, he always made it a point to visit
with local CLCers. He was never forgotten.
He received his baccalaureate in mathematics
at Manhattan College, and continued his edu-
cation at Georgetown University where he re-
ceived his M.S. in 1943. Like many of his
generation, he interrupted his studies and en-
listed in the Navy and received a commission
as a naval communications officer on the USS
Ticonderoga with the Pacific Fleet during
WWII. He continued his graduate studies at
Purdue University, receiving his Ph.D. in math-
ematical statistics in 1949. Fred was on the fac-
ulty at Case Institute of Technology from
1949-1966 and served as professor at the Uni-
versity of Iowa from 1966-1973. During the
1968-69 academic year he was on the faculty
at the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil as Ful-
bright Fellow. He co-authored with Norman
Johnson, Statistics and Experimental Design
Engineering and the Physical Sciences (1964,
1977), a widely used text for applied statistics.
Fred also served as editor of Technometrics
from 1964 to 1968. In 1987 he was awarded the
Shewhart Medal for outstanding technical lead-
ership in the field of modern quality control
from the American Society for Quality.

Fred and Betty had nine children. The first

two, twins, died at birth. Whenever I visited
with him we would always talk about each
of his children including 21 grandchildren
and 14 great grandchildren. When possible
(almost always) he would attend his grand-
children’s graduations and weddings. About
three years ago he even went to Germany for
a granddaughter’s wedding. Fred loved to be
with his family and loved to have parties.
His 90th birthday was quite a celebration.

The Leones began their journey in CLC

when they were first introduced to Sodality
34
in 1956 in Cleveland, Ohio. They continued
on that road throughout their lives. I first
met Fred at a Sodality/CLC National Con-
vention in Omaha, Nebraska in 1967. That
was the year that our World Movement was
re-named Christian Life Community. That
was almost 50 years ago. My travelling
journey with them included Iowa (1971-73)
for many meetings at their home; Augsburg,
Germany in 1973 for a World Assembly;
Washington, D.C. when they moved in 1973
and for many other visits and meetings.
Other assemblies included the Philippines
and Rome assemblies and many of our own
national assemblies.
In my years as Executive Director of CLC-
USA I had the privilege of working with
five presidents. Fred was one of them. He
was actually the one who invited me to St.
Louis, Missouri to interview for that posi-
tion in 1971. I don’t know how many people
were able to say no to Fred. I can’t remem-
ber any. Fred was President of CLC-USA
from 1967-71 and a member of the World
ExCo for nine years (1970-76 and 1979-82).
During his time on the World ExCo he
worked with a team, including Nick Rie-
man, S.J., the World Vice Ecclesiastical As-
sistant in Rome, on the first (early) revision
of the General Principles (1978).
In 1975 the World CLC became a non-gov-
ernmental organization (NGO) accredited to
the Economic and Social Council of the
United Nations. Fred always credited Betty for
the initiation of this request to the World ExCo
when he was Vice-President. We continue to
have accreditation and a CLC working group
at the UN. Betty said that together with other
NGOs, we (WCLC) could influence public
opinion on issues of global concern.
Fred loved to write and so many CLCers
would have seen his articles in Harvest1 or
in Progressio. It was a joy to be a co-author
with him on occasion and especially as we
wrote the CLC History which appeared in
2013 in Harvest. “Fred, thank you for the
time we worked together on this project. I
will miss our conversations, our meals to-
gether, our watching movies and our prayer
time together. And more, I will miss the
times that we reminisced about our CLC
way of life and the many friends who ac-
companied us on our journey.” In 2005, two
years after Betty died he wrote a book enti-
tled, Journey. It was a story about his jour-
ney in life. After each chapter he concluded
1
The CLC USA publication.
with a reflection and a prayer. On
the last page he wrote, “Each
time I read the above sections, I
ask myself if I have done enough
in my over 82 years of life here
on earth. It looks as if God isn’t
ready to take me Home yet. Evi-
dently, God wanted her (Betty)
Home. I am seeking what new
journey God may be calling me
to and wondering how long it
will take before I join Betty. …
And now I conclude. Here is my
story, and may your journey and
my continued journey be fruitful
in Godʼs eyes.” Furthermore,
Fred stated that all the proceeds
from his book, Journey, would
go to the CLC-NGO working
group in New York to be used for
special projects.
Above: Fred Leone during a for-
Fred was always committed to his family, mation course.
his parish, his own CLC and to CLC world-
wide. His relationship with God was very
important to him and such an example to
many. Without fail he would make his eight-
day Ignatian retreat. While still living in the
Washington, D.C. area he organized a group
from his parish to make a five-day retreat at
the Jesuit Retreat House in Faulkner, Mary-
land. He did it for about three years.
In September 2015 Fred moved to Galion,
Ohio to Magnolia Terrace (assisted living)
which is close to his son, Larry who is a
medical doctor. He called me shortly after
moving there and said, “This is the place
God wants me to be right now until God
calls me home.” Fred and I shared many
calls and several visits after that. In the
meantime, Fred was not going to just be
there and do nothing. He called me again,
this time to help with organizing a retreat
for the residents. In May of this year, he
called upon his own spiritual director to
come from Pittsburgh to direct a two-day re-
treat for them. He was happy. About two
weeks before he died Fred called me and
said, “Marie, we have to begin to organize
the retreat for next spring.”
Fred died July 14, 2016 three weeks shy of
his 94th birthday. I heard from a family
member that about two days before Fred
died, she found a couple pieces of paper that
had three names on them written by him.
They read, Betty, John and Michael. Yes,
Fred was ready and so was God.
35
 To share in the blessings of the gospel
I
n his first letter to the Corinthians, St.
Paul speaks about the diverse ways in
which he preaches the gospel and then
exults that this ministry enables him to
share in the blessings of the gospel (cf.
1Cor 9, 16-23). Over these past seven
years, working with World CLC has been
my specific way of ‘preaching the gospel’.
Through this mission, I encountered di-
verse situations, contrasting cultures and
exceptionally beautiful people.
Fr. Luke has been the I fervently hope that the Lord has blessed
Vice-Ecclesiastical World CLC in some way through my min-
Assistant for World CLC istry. What I do know for sure is that CLC
from 2010. He ends his has brought me innumerable blessings. It
has shaped my inner life and taught me
term in December 2016.
valuable lessons about life and disciple-
ship. This sharing expresses, however in-
adequately, some special blessings I have
received through CLC.
Fall in love, stay in love;
it will decide everything.
These famous words of Pedro Arrupe
beckon us to the core of our lives as Chris-
tians – a deep personal love for Jesus. I was
privileged to meet so many CLC members
whose lives are marked by this love. This
love came shining through during retreats
and celebration of the Eucharist. It came
shining through when members would
share about their life and how they sought
to model it after the life of Christ. It came
shining through in a faith that triumphed
over tragic situations. In these members I
encountered beautiful people who knew
how to surrender their lives to the powerful
transforming presence of God.
An apostle is called first to be with Jesus
before being sent out in His name. In a
world full of pressing needs, it is easy to
get lost in activism, rushing to bring suc-
cour in desperate situations. The
36
Luke Rodrigues S.j.
most lasting help we can offer is to make
God’s love present in these situations. This
can only happen when that love is alive and
active within us. As Vice EA, it is part of
my role to be ‘keeper of the spiritual move-
ments of the community’. To be a privi-
leged witness of these spiritual movements
was an exceedingly great blessing. I rarely
had to do anything to keep those move-
ments alive and was merely a witness to
the fire that the Lord kindled in the hearts
of CLC members. The sparks from those
fires have enflamed my own desire to sur-
render my life more fully to Jesus.
Recognize your calling …
and follow it.
I am deeply struck by the way CLC is
growing in its understanding of the lay vo-
cation in the Church. We often hear it said
that the Church has entered a new phase –
the Millennium of the Laity. The lay voca-
tion as a specific way of following Christ
has obviously been present in the Church
since its inception. Yet, the word ‘Vocation’
usually conjures up images associated with
priestly and religious life. It is only now that
the laity are reclaiming their special place
in the Church. I believe that God has a spe-
cial mission for CLC in the Church at this
moment – a mission to refine and develop
our understanding of the lay vocation.
CLC members are actively involved in cre-
ating and revising formation programmes
that take into account the life situation of
the laity. They have identified dimensions
of this vocation, its successive stages and
the specific means required for living out
each stage fully. This is indeed ground-
breaking work that has implications far be-
yond CLC itself. These formation
programmes are a valuable resource for
other groups in the Church. They also con-
tribute towards building up a solid concep-
tual framework, drawn from the lived
reality of committed Christians.
The fidelity of CLC members to their call-
ing inspires me to examine and deepen my
own vocation as a Jesuit priest. This jour-
ney together, while opening my eyes to the
beauty of the lay vocation, has also en-
hanced my appreciation of religious life. I
have said this often before, and will keep
repeating it - my interactions with CLC
members inspires me to be a better Jesuit.
I am sure many other EAs will echo similar
sentiments.

A rediscovery of Ignatius
As Jesuits, we are lucky to have easy ac-
cess to a vast trove of Ignatian resources
along with several opportunities to explore
these resources. This could unfortunately
leads us to take this gift for granted. My
own interest in Ignatian spirituality was re-
vived during the months of Tertianship but
it really sparked into life during these years
with CLC. I am amazed and humbled to
see how CLC members eagerly receive and
assimilate different aspects of the Ignatian
charism, integrating key Ignatian exercises
into their daily life schedules.

In the past few years, CLC has done a lot

to promote the dynamic of Discerning
Sending Supporting and Evaluating
(DSSE). It is true that the practice of this
process is uneven across different national
communities. It is also true that most
members and communities experience dif-
ficulties regarding the steps of Sending
and Supporting. Nevertheless, a lot of gramme ends with a prayerful review, ex- Above: from top to bottom:
progress has been made in implementing amining the inner motions experienced and - Luke with Fr. Adolfo Nicolas SJ
this dynamic, particularly in the area of picking out the fruits received. This is a and Fr. Herminio Rico SJ, the

Discerning. Discernment – be it at the in-
dividual or communitarian level - is not
mere jargon in CLC vocabulary. It is a
spiritual tool frequently used in a sincere
search to know and follow God’s will.
CLC has grown a lot as a community
wherein individuals and groups sponta-
neously use discernment to arrive at deci-
sions. I would like CLC to recognize this
strength and continue refining it in new
and challenging circumstances. I would
also like CLC to consciously offer this ex-
perience and expertise to other lay and re-
ligious communities.
Another lovely practice is the communal
review done at every CLC meeting and
event. Every meeting and every pro-
beautiful application of the prayer review new WCLC Vice-Ecclesiastical
Assistant.
recommended by St. Ignatius (S.E. n 77). - Luke celebrates mass in the
How I wish we Jesuits would follow this Rooms of St. Ignatius in Rome.
practice in our own community meetings
and provincial assemblies!
Personal fidelity to the Examen is another
great strength of CLC. Many members have
shared how the daily Examen has made
them more attuned to God’s presence in
every circumstance of life. Even as I write
this, I see in my mind’s eye the faces of
CLC members who embody the Ignatian
ideal of encountering God in all things.
Faithful practice of the Examen has helped
them grow in this union and fa-
miliarity with

37
 God. As these faces flash before my eyes
right now, I whisper a prayer of gratitude and
ask that I learn from their example.
The apostolic dimension of
daily life
I assure you I have always known (at least theoretically)
that daily life is the primary locus of the lay
however dear apostolate. However, my own experience of
working in institutions has coloured my un-
friends that I derstanding of ‘mission’. Many a time I
cherish you have wished that CLC be more visible, that
it have a more tangible impact upon our so-
always in my cial realities. I have had long and heated dis-
cussions on this topic, urging a greater
heart, apostolic visibility for CLC. In turn, my
remembering CLC friends ask me to examine whether I
am unconsciously seeking to replicate a ‘Je-
gling all of this with fulltime commitments
in the workplace. Here were people living a
reality that is far removed from my own.
Here were people living out their reality with
a passion and faith that can only come from
a deep relationship with God. Here then was
the Kingdom of God coming alive through
the daily activities of laypeople.
Over these years, CLC has shown me how
God’s mission goes far beyond a vision
based on my own limited experience. It has
shown me what it means ‘to give an apos-
tolic sense to even the most humble realities
of daily life’ (GP 8.c). It has taught me a lot
about being generous with one’s time and
talents. CLC has shown me how the reli-
gious and lay understanding of mission can
complement and strengthen each other.

you and your
intentions at the
Eucharistic altar
Below:
- Luke with Edel Churu (Kenya)
and Denis Dobbelstein (Bel-
gium).
- With Mauricio Lopez (Mexico)
World CLC President.
On the other page: Luke on the
Hill of Crosses, Lituania.
- With Fr. General and ExCo
members at the ExCo Meeting
2012.
suit model’ within a lay body.
In all honesty, I still maintain the need for
greater apostolic visibility in CLC. Our
Lord calls us to be salt of the earth, working
in a silent, invisible manner to make the
kingdom present. He also calls us to be light
of the world, shining bright so that all may
see and give glory to God (cf. Mt 5, 13-16).
We need to strike the right balance and
know which approach is more suitable in a
given situation.
Paradoxically, my desire for greater apos-
tolic visibility has led me to appreciate ever
more the primary mission of the layperson –
the mission in daily life. It took me a while
to grow in this appreciation. Once more, it
was the personal example of members that
helped me expand my idea of mission. Here
were people doing household chores, raising
children, looking after the elderly and jug-
The warm clasp of friendship
The Bible reminds us that whoever finds a
friend has found a treasure” (Sirach 6, 14).
CLC has certainly been blessed with an
abundance of this treasure. I have been
touched to see the strong bonds of commu-
nity within CLC groups. Members show a
genuine concern for each other. Many have
found their CLC group to be that special
place where they can be themselves and ex-
perience true friendship.
This treasure of friendship is a great bless-
ing that has come to me through CLC. It has
been a joy to know people of widely differ-
ent cultures and worldviews. These cultural
differences have not come in the way of
building up strong bonds of friendship,
bonds that continue to grow over time. Per-
haps these bonds may have started out
through some casual interaction, but they

38
have been tested and deepened through our source of rich and lasting blessings for me
common identity as disciples of Jesus. In personally.
true Ignatian tradition, this characteristic of
being ‘Friends in the Lord’ is what enabled My dear friends in CLC, I praise and thank
us to grow as true friends. Once more, I see God for you and for your presence in my
before me the names and faces of so many life. You have inspired me to deepen my re-
who have honoured me with their friend- lationship with Jesus and to be a better Je-
ship. I dare not mention specific names here suit. Your commitment to this way of life
for fear of missing someone. I assure you has given me a better appreciation of the Ig-
however dear friends that I cherish you al- natian charism and of the lay mission. You
ways in my heart, remembering you and have opened your hearts and homes to me
your intentions at the Eucharistic altar. May and have honoured me with your friendship.
the Lord be pleased to bless our friendship This journey together has been exciting, en-
in the years ahead. riching and joyful. May the Spirit inflame
your hearts as you continue to do great
Am aware that I have not shared much things for the Lord.
about my specific work as Vice EA and the
difficulties encountered therein. It would be God bless!
foolish to claim that it was all smooth sail-
ing. I did face difficulties from the nature of
the work itself – a religious accompanying
laypeople in their vocation. Different na-
tional communities face concrete problems
that have no easy solution. I sometimes ag-
onized over the fact that I could do so little
to help these communities. I also had occa-
sional differences of opinion with CLC
leaders regarding the concrete steps re-
quired to promote the life of CLC. How-
ever, I felt free to express these opinions
frankly in an atmosphere of mutual trust and
appreciation. The focus of this article was
not to make an evaluation of the current sit-
uation of CLC. It was rather to share how
my ministry with World CLC has been the

39
 Meet the ExCo: Josephine
A
josephine Shamwana-Lungu
visitor for Edward Shamwana! You
have 15mins to see him. This was a
the cold voice I heard for ten years of
my life. This was the voice of a prison war-
den outside the high security wall of our
country’s maximum prison where my fa-
ther’s only brother had been sentenced to
life imprisonment for treason. I was 15
years old when I began this journey which
marked my search for God.
I was born on the 26th December 1966, as
the tenth child in a family of eleven chil-
dren. My father, Enoch Shamwana a modest
and kind man had an only brother Edward
(one of the best lawyers our country had
produced) who played a significant role in
my life. I was born in the year my paternal
grandfather died and so I was named after
him ‘Kamambwe’ (which is my middle
name and my email address). In our culture
we believe you carry the spirit of the person
you are named after. This made my relation-
ship with my father and uncle and grand-
mother very dear as they treated me like
they would have related with him. My fa-
ther was a Methodist (died in 1988) and my
mother Jenala is Catholic.
Josephine with Edel Churu
While I was in University I met and fell in
(Kenya - ExCo member).
love with Muhabi. We got married on 4th
40
CLC has been the path to
deepen my faith, to find my
talents, to seek God more
earnestly. My life has had a
lot of pockets of pain but
the Ignatian path of
‘Finding God in all Things’
has helped me face life a
little more boldly
July 1992 and we have an 18 year old
daughter, Velepi. She has left home for uni-
versity at the beginning of 2014. Velepi has
had to grow up in a home with two busy
parents. Muhabi is an active politician, who
has served in government. When our daugh-
ter was only 8 months, my husband was ar-
rested for treason and once again I heard the
words from the prison gates: ‘A visitor for
Muhabi Lungu... you have 20 minutes
madam’. (I am sure when Ignatius talked
about repetition in the Spiritual Exercises I
don’t think he meant that I should return to
the prison to visit someone significant
again). Uncle Edward spent ten years in
prison, and he was later pardoned and he
walked me down the aisle on my wedding
day. My husband spent 100 days only...but
it seemed a long time.
I have been in the teaching profession for
the last 24years. Currently I am the School
Principal of a Jesuit Secondary School. This
school was built by Uncle Edward in 1979.
Four years after he died, I quit my job as
School Superintendent in a private school at
the request of Uncle’s Co trustees to go and
revamp this School. Three years later, as a
family, we sat down with the other Trustees
and decided to give the school to the Society
of Jesus of the Zambia Malawi Province.
My contact with CLC
My first contact with CLC, began when I
was in secondary school in 1982. I am a fun
loving person and was attracted to join this
group of boys and girls who looked happy
and were having fun. When Uncle Edward
was arrested, our extended family aban-
doned all of us. I began to search for a new
family and the only place where I found
welcoming arms was my parish. I wanted a
place to feel loved and cared for. The School
CLCG seemed attractive. I vividly recall the
picnics and singing and not so much the
structure of the meetings. I remember the
shock when our Chaplain (that is what we
called them then – now EA’s) invited me to
do my first eight days retreat... ‘Who? Me?
Shut up for 8 days? Are you sure I won’t run
mad?’ I am convinced God must have had a
good laugh at my reaction because I now al-
ways look forward to getting my 8 days
each year.

CLC has been the path to deepen my faith,

to find my talents, to seek God more
earnestly. My life has had a lot of pockets
of pain but the Ignatian path of ‘Finding
God in all Things’ has helped me face life a
little more boldly. I have served my local
community on the national team as forma-
tion coordinator, and also as Vice President
of our National community. My experience
in Itaici1 deepened my thirst to want to do
something in the field of formation. This
drove me to want to learn more about Ig-
natius. This opened my door to my love for
adventure and travel. I have taken the risk
to find out more about what I read in the life
of Ignatius. I have done crazy things like:
travel outside Rome to find ‘La Storta’;
done an Ignatian Immersion Course in Man-
resa / Monsterrat/Loyola (Where I met Luke
and Sofia)... ; sat in the Cave and just won-
dered what Ignatius was going through... in-
stead of getting the ‘gift of tears’ like he did
I got the ‘gift of laughter’; studied at a Jesuit
School of Theology in Berkeley.
I have a humorous relationship with my
Lord and he knows I like to be pampered...
For example I recall always asking for a sec-
ond child. After 14 years I conceived and I
was so dumbfounded. Sadly in my eighth
month of pregnancy I had a miscarriage. I
went through a long period of desolation. In
those dark months of mourning I struggled
with my faith. I asked all the questions I
could think of, but it was a very enriching
time as I look back. At a time when I thought
he had abandoned me I received my Papal
Medal from Pope Benedict. You won’t be-
lieve my reaction to this news ‘Okay Lord,
what is this about? ... Fine, fine, fine. You
want me to stop crying’... I could go on.
My dreams, my challenges,
my hopes.
My dreams for the World ExCco are that I
will bring to this gifted table in my little
boat (in the picture) a voice that will share
with the rest of the church this wonderful
Ignatian gift. My dream is to continue ex-
ploring the Ignatian World.
I hope I will have the confidence to share
openly and allow you to get in my boat of
dreams to reach different parts of the world.
I hope to use my gifts for the larger commu-
nity. I also hope I will have the courage to
say ‘no’ when it has to be said.
My challenges: my inability to know when
to stop working on something I have great
passion for. I get so engrossed with creative
work and I want to keep working till it is
perfect. (Don’t blame me ... I think that is
what God is still doing with me).
That is a little bit about me, and my story so
far.....

1
World Assembly 1998, Itaici, Brazil.

41
 Part I: Our Charism
Excerpts from the General Principles of CLC
4. Our Community is made up of Chri-
stians: men and women, adults and youth,
of all social conditions who want to fol-
low Jesus Christ more closely and work
with him for the building of the Kin-
gdom, who have recognized Christian
Life Community as their particular voca-
tion within the Church.
We aim to become committed Christians
in bearing witness to those human and
Gospel values within the Church and so-
ciety, which affect the dignity of the per-
son, the welfare of the family and the
integrity of creation.
We are particularly aware of the pressing
need to work for justice through a prefe-
rential option for the poor and a simple
life style, which expresses our freedom
and solidar¬ity with them.
To prepare our members more effectively
for apostolic witness and service, espe-
cially in our daily environment, we as-
semble people in community who feel a
more urgent need to unite their human
life in all its dimensions with the fullness
of their Christian faith according to our
charism.
We seek to achieve this unity of life in re-
sponse to the call of Christ from within
the world in which we live.
5. The spirituality of our Community is cen-
tered on Christ and on participation in the
Paschal Mystery. It draws from the Sa-
cred Scriptures, the liturgy, the doctrin¬al
development of the Church, and the reve-
lation of God's will through the events of
our times.
Within the context of these universal
sources, we hold the Spiritual Exercises
42
of St. Ignatius as the specific source and
the characteristic instrument of our spiri-
tuality.
Our vocat¬ion calls us to live this spiri-
tuality, which opens and disposes us to
whatever God wishes in each concrete si-
tuation of our daily life.
We recognise particularly the necessity of
prayer and discernment, personal and
commun¬al, of the daily examination of
consciousness and of spiritual guidance
as important means for seeking and fin-
ding God in all things.
6. Union with Christ leads to union with the
Church where Christ here and now con-
tinues his mission of salvation. By ma-
king ourselves sensitive to the signs of
the times and the movements of the Spi-
rit, we will be better able to encounter
Christ in all persons and in all situat-ions.
Sharing the riches of membership of the
Church, we participate in the liturgy, me-
ditate upon the Scriptures, and learn,
teach and promote Christian doctrine.
We work together with the hierarchy and
other ecclesial leaders, motivated by a
common concern for the problems and
progress of all people and open to the si-
tuations in which the Church finds itself
today.
This sense of the Church impels us to
creative and concrete collaboration for
the work of advancing the reign of God
on earth, and includes a readiness to go
and serve where the needs of the Church
so demand.
7. Our gift of self finds its expression in a
personal commitment to the World Com-
 munity, through a freely chosen local
community. Such a local community,
centered in the Eucharist, is a concrete
experience of unity in love and action. In
fact each of our communities is a gathe-
ring of people in Christ, a cell of his my-
stical Body. We are bound together by our
common commitment, our common way
of life, and our recognition and love of
Mary as our mother. Our responsibility to
develop the bonds of community does not
stop with our local community but ex-
tends to the National and World Christian
Life Community, to the ecclesial commu-
nities of which we are part (parish, dio-
cese), to the whole Church and to all
people of good will.
8. As members of the pilgrim People of
God, we have received from Christ the
mission of being his witnesses before all
people by our attitudes, words and ac-
tions, becoming identified with his mis-
sion of bringing the good news to the
poor, proclaiming liberty to captives and
to the blind new sight, setting the dow-
ntrodden free and proclaiming the Lord's
year of favour.
Our life is essentially apostolic. The field
of CLC mission knows no limits: it ex-
tends both to the Church and the world,
in order to bring the gospel of salvation
to all people and to serve individual per-
sons and society by opening hearts to
conversion and struggling to change op-
pressive structures.
a) Each of us receives from God a call to
make Christ and his saving action pre-
sent to our surroundings. This personal
apostolate is indispensable for extending
the Gospel in a lasting and penetrating
way among the great diversity of per-
sons, places and situations.
b) At the same time, we exercise a corpo-
rate or group apostolate in a great va-
riety of forms, whether through group
action initiated or sustained by the Com-
munity through suitable structures, or
through involvement of members in exi-
sting secular and religious organizations
and efforts.
c) The Community helps us to live this
apostolic commitment in its different di-
mensions, and to be always open to
what is more urgent and universal, par-
ticularly through the "Review of life"
and through personal and communal di-
scernment.
We try to give an apostolic sense to even
the most humble realities of daily life.
d) The Community urges us to proclaim
the Word of God and to work for the re-
form of structures of society, participa-
ting in efforts to liberate the victims
from all sort of discrimination and espe-
cially to abolish differences between
rich and poor. We wish to contribute to
the evangelisation of cultures from wi-
thin. We desire to do all this in an ecu-
menical spirit, ready to collaborate with
those initiatives that bring about unity
among Christians.
Our life finds its permanent inspiration
in the Gospel of the poor and humble
Christ.
9. Since the spirituality of our Community
is centered on Christ, we see the role of
Mary in relation to Christ: she is the
model of our own collaboration in Chri-
st's mission. Mary's co-operation with
God begins with her "yes" in the mystery
of the Annunciation Incarnation. Her ef-
fective service as shown in her visit to
Elizabeth and her solidarity with the poor
as reflected in the Magnificat, make her
an inspiration for our action for justice in
the world today. Mary's co-operation in
her Son's mission, continued all through
her life, inspires us to give ourselves to-
tally to God in union with Mary, who by
accepting the designs of God became our
mother and the mother of all. Thus we
confirm our own mission of service to the
world received in baptism and confirma-
tion. We honour Mary, the Mother of
God, in a special way, and we rely on her
intercession in fulfilling our vocation.
43
 The Readers’ voice
I
am back in peaceful, rural
South Australia, after a trip to
WYD in Krakow and a visit to
CLC office in Rome.
In Krakow I was pleased to visit
the CLC booth in the Vocations
Exhibition where I was welcomed
by Najat. It was good to see CLC’s
presence among so many young
people, and encouraging a reflec-
tive Ignatian missionary faith.
I was touched by the three reflec-
tions in Progressio n2 2015, “CLC
in Homs… in Aleppo … in Dam-
ascus”. What moving testimonies
of faith and of CLC spirituality!
In the context of his war-ravaged
nation, Syria, Abed Rayess identi-
fies the evil one as urging violence
and killing: “if you murder your
brother your danger will vanish”.
Abed says it is a world distant
from the Gospel and inflamed by
R
eading the previous issue
of Progressio (2015, no. 2)
has brought back many
sweet memories of the French
CVX Congress. Thanks to the in-
vitation from Christine Beaude in
Paris, I was fortunate enough to
take part in the Congress.
It was a great pleasure to meet the
2500 French CVX members, most
of whom were once strangers to
me. However, the encounter turned
out not strange at all given our
same specific source of Ignatian
spirituality and our common call-
ing as Christocentric CLCers (GP
5-7), thus being united in Jesus
Christ who sat down by the well
waiting for us (Jn 4:4-6).
One of the graces of being in one
community is to share some sense
44
ideology. We in Australia also ex-
perience this distance from the
Gospel, notably by self-imposed
isolation and a tendency to look at
the stranger with suspicion. There
are some who seek to keep Mus-
lims and refugees distant, as if
other people are the enemy. Rather
than give in to dark forces, Abed
courageously asks, “how could we
blow an evangelic spirit in a world
which is isolated and estranged
from the gospel?”
Samar Aswar in Aleppo describes
something of her experience of
near death and awareness of a frag-
ile existence. Yet how meaningful
is her and her husband’s mission in
“striving together to stay in our so-
ciety with our own people, and
those of them who are still there”.
It is a powerful presence of the
spirit.
Nada Sarkis in Damascus asks the
of engagements with members
around the world. Not only from
personal encounters such as my
French CVX Congress experience,
but also through reading reflections
by members, we come to live our
lives together in the spiritual sense.
I was particularly touched by the
reflections of our brothers and sis-
ters in Syria. While they were con-
templating the question of ‘what
ought I to do’ especially in relation
to leaving or staying, I too re-
flected on the same question. It is
indeed a crucial question which in-
cessantly appears in our daily
lives, from matters such as taking
up a new job offer to more impor-
tant decisions like migration and
what our brothers and sisters are
facing in Syria.
question, “Where is God?” and
while some have developed their
spirituality through this ordeal,
others have lost faith. In this con-
text we can recognise the value
that “our role often consists in lis-
tening with compassion to the ex-
pressions of suffering”.
These reflections speak to my ex-
periences in rural Australia where
we have many material things, a
stable society life, but a superficial
sense of community and belong-
ing. We too can ask with courage,
how can we blow an evangelic
spirit in our society? Maybe it is
with deeper personal presence and
with listening with compassion to
the expressions of suffering around
us.
Thank you, Abed, Samar and
Nada.
John Herd
Murray Bridge, South Australia
So ‘what ought I do’ at the present
moment? I would never underesti-
mate the power of prayers and our
connection through Jesus. When I
have my next CLC meeting, I will
pray with my group for our broth-
ers and sisters in Syria and beyond,
who are experiencing some diffi-
culties and faced with important
decisions to make.
May the Holy Spirit bless us with
the gift of Counsel and Fortitude
so that we can constantly open up
our discerning heart to respond to
God’s calling.
United in prayers,
Daniel Fung
CLC Hong Kong
Repetitio: The road to the CLC 50th Year Jubilee

The Central Secretariat publishes the program, agenda

and participants of the Meeting of the General Council
in Domus Pacis, Rome. October 19-21, 1967. In this
meeting they would adopt the first form of the General
Principles and the new name of the movement--
Christian Life Communities.

Source: Acies Ordinata 36th Year. Three Language Edition

No.4 Autumn 1967

Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach SJ, 29th Superior General

of the Society of Jesus, passed away on November
26, 2016. Fr. Kolvenbach was the World CLC
Ecclesiastical Assistant (EA) from 1984 to 2008.
Throughout his 24 years as our EA, he continuously
reminded us of our deep heritage within the Church
and the Ignatian tradition. He reminded the Society
of Jesus and CLC that working with each other
enriches both our missions. With us, he believed that
our being one world body was a manifestation of our
communion with the Church. In this, we are united
with him in prayer, and in gratitude for the life he
has gifted us with.